These back to school photos of shelter pets are giving us a really good education in adorableness.
Extra credit for Barbara Hutcherson, acting director of the Fairfax County Animal Shelter in Northern Virginia, who came up with the A+ idea for these pics.
"In my previous life, I was a teacher and Back to School Night was always an important part of each new school year," she told The Huffington Post. "Why not get the animals in on it?"
The cats and dogs didn't actually put on tuxes, or sit in front of lasers for these photos. (Yeah, we're disappointed, too.)
Their headshots were taken by shelter photographers -- after which volunteer Kelly Duer, who we like to think of as yearbook editor extraordinaire, worked her Photoshop magic.
"I got a picture of a man in a tux, and cut out just the top portion of the tux. Then I cut out the dog's head and put it on the tux picture," Duer said.
The shelter's taking this theme a little further than just photos, too.
On Oct. 3, they'll be holding a Back to School Day, with "ask the vet" and "ask the trainer" drop-in seminars. Educators will get half-off adoption fees, and the kennels will all have report cards attached to them.
We're hoping no one's held back!
Indeed, the idea of the pics isn't just to delight, though certainly they do.
More importantly, they're part of an effort to help these sweeties graduate from the shelter and into loving homes.
"Research and experience has taught us that great photos bring people in the door to adopt and that's what it's all about," says Hutcherson.
Hutcherson declined to answer HuffPost's eager follow-up questions, as to whether the shelter would be expanding on the school theme with, say, prom photos or graduation pics.
"Hey," she said, "don't go letting the cat out of the bag!"
You definitely want to check out the Fairfax County Animal Shelter Facebook page, where these and other wonderful animals' adoption photos will be posted.
And get in touch at arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com if you have an animal story to share!
