Animals in costume among the revelers at Fantasy Fest

Celebration runs through Sunday

KEY WEST, Fla. – The Fantasy Fest costuming and masking celebration continues in Key West following an offbeat competition for pets and their owners.

Dogs, cats, a hedgehog, a rooster and even a 10-year-old sloth garbed as a prison inmate competed in Wednesday evening's Pet Masquerade, promenading across an oceanfront stage before about 1,000 spectators.

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Entries included two Chihuahuas dressed as silver-suited spacemen, a Dalmatian whose "look-alike" owner pedaled a bicycle portraying a fire engine and a Labrador retriever wearing a faux lion's mane who, with his owner, protested the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe.

The celebration runs through Sunday. There are more than 50 events including a Headdress Ball, a masquerade march beginning at a local cemetery and Saturday night's Decadent Highlight Parade expected to attract more than 60,000 revelers.