A Howl-aween treat: Winners of the Star Tribune Halloween Pet Costume Contest

Some people maintain that dressing up animals is downright demeaning.

It's true that several owners who submitted photos for the Star Tribune Halloween Pet Costume Contest said their pets were reluctant models at best, requiring generous amounts of treats before consenting to dress up and pose.

Kathy Miller is the caretaker of her grandson's bearded dragon, Spike, and she has dressed up the lizard in a pilgrim's hat, Cupid wings and an ugly Christmas sweater to celebrate different holidays. The Vadnais Heights woman admits that when she approaches Spike with a costume, he'll "close his eyes, hoping I'll go away."

And we got a lot of submissions of cats wearing both a costume and an irritable expression. (Some of these cats, we suspect, wear an irritable expression most of the time.)

But there are plenty of pets that seem to relish donning a costume.

One owner said her dog feels left out if she doesn't get to take part when the kids play dress-up. Another said she dresses her shih tzu for Halloween to remind him of his modeling days, when he used to pose in ads for dog clothing. And judging from the entries we receive from veterinary offices, it's safe to say no animals were harmed in the making of this contest.

Most of us spoil our pets rotten. For 364 days of the year, they get to loaf around the house, enjoying catered meals and the services of their own personal poop butler. In exchange, once a year they can be bribed with cheese snacks, wear a costume long enough for us to snap a photo and look adorable.

Our winners did exactly that.

First place

It looks like Cinnamon and Sammy, owned by Ruth Reilly of Maple Grove, are enacting a scene from a Robin Hood movie. But Reilly said her handmade costumes are actually inspired by the lyrics of a Bob Dylan song, "Desolation Row": "Einstein disguised as Robin Hood ... with his friend, a jealous monk." That's why Sammy is wearing a gray Einstein wig. You can hear the song being played in a photo shoot video on the dogs' Instagram page, cinnamon_and_sammy, where they have more than 7,000 followers.

Second place

We thought astronaut Jack, a Boston terrier owned by Eric Rice and Lee Van Lith of Minneapolis, had the right stuff, even though Rice said Jack was a bit reluctant and "mean-mugged" during the photo shoot. "He's like the angry teenager begrudging what his parents want him to do," Rice said.

Third place

Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe are portrayed here by Monte the Bernese mountain dog, owned by Courtney and Silas Reek of St. Cloud, and Frankie, the French bulldog, owned by Courtney's aunt and uncle, Theresa and Rich Elveru of Elk River. The two dogs are good friends despite their 80-pound size difference.

Runners-up

Colbi, a cat owned by Brianna Davey of Minneapolis, strikes a "Part of Your World" pose from the Disney animated feature "The Little Mermaid." Davey said the mermaid costume, originally made to fit a human toddler, was modified to fit her 15-pound cat.

Walter and Deja, two shih tzus from Minneapolis, are dressed as the title characters of another Disney animated classic, "Beauty and the Beast." They're owned by Carie and Justin Stattman, who report that the models were rewarded with cheese.

Millie, who weighs more than 100 pounds, wears a vintage women's hat acquired from an estate sale, a child's cape, a pearl necklace and an antique brooch. The Great Pyrenees mix with an "aristocratic disposition" is fittingly dressed as Queen Elizabeth II, according to owner Klair Lindblad of Maple Grove.

In some ways this competition is a photo contest as much as a costume contest as demonstrated by this great action shot of Ole as a bee in midflight. Ole, a Maltipoo, is owned by Donna Olson of Plymouth.

"We treat our animals like royalty," said Meagan Abel of her dogs, Otis and Maya, and chickens, Waffles, Enchilada, Patty and Salad. So the Hopkins pet family owned by Meagan and her husband, Trevor Abel, are dressed this Halloween in the crowns of kings and princesses.

People say Maya, a husky mix, looks like a wolf, so owners Jay and Lea Kirihara thought it would be fun to dress her up in a Little Red Riding Hood outfit to walk around their St. Louis Park neighborhood for Halloween.

We get a lot of pictures of ghostly dogs in sheets, but none posed quite as spookily as Milo, a husky/golden retriever mix, haunting this lonely road. Milo is owned by Mikayla Endisch of Edina.