Halloween costumes are hard to pick, not to mention sensitive to the tone of the event. Are you a pun, or a sexy fill-in-the-blank? Pet costumes, on the other hand, are limitless. A bumblebee. The little mermaid. A cloud. Grandmother Wolf. An unsuccessful TV pilot, if your pet really resists being picked up. You can use any of those and more at the 8th Annual Thomas J. Henry Bark in the Park costume contest and pet expo on October 29 at Sunken Garden Theater.

The contest benefits San Antonio Pets Alive and the Animal Defense League of Texas through registration fees (discounted to $7 to preregister until further notice). Winners take home prizes up to $1,000, and spectators can join for free.

While the pets strut their stuff and handlers check out the vendors, kids are invited to hang out in the kids’ zone. Furthering the purpose of the event's benefactors, there will be an on-site adoption drive. Perhaps next year’s winner is among the hopeful adoptees. Food trucks and music round out this day at the park.

San Antonio Pets Alive is a no-kill animal shelter with some long-term residents — currently featured in “long stay” cats and dogs categories — as well as newcomers who get snatched up the moment the public finds out about them. The shelter offers adoptions and relies heavily on foster families. San Antonio Pets Alive has saved more than 63,000 animal lives since 2011.

The Animal Defense League of Texas is a similar organization operating locally in San Antonio, which claims to be the area’s “largest and oldest true no-kill shelter.” It maintains a full-time veterinary staff, spays and neuters pets for low-income families, and runs educational programs in schools and in the community. The shelter’s maximum capacity is 400 animals, but it pledges never to euthanize an animal when space runs out.

For more information about the Thomas J. Henry Bark in the Park contest, visit thomasjhenrylaw.com or view the event on Facebook.