On Thursday night, the Animal Health Institute (AHI) announced the winners of the Cutest Pets Contest at its annual Celebrity Pet Night on Capitol Hill, which celebrates the bond between people and their pets. It was a lively event – complete with barks – and included appearances by celebrity pets; the adorable dog named Marti who portrays “Sandy” in the urban remake of “Annie” and Orion the cat, who plays “Buttercup” in the “Hunger Games” series.

The night began with the unveiling of the Cutest Pets winners in the Dog, Cat and Exotic pets categories. Every year, members of Congress and their staff submit photos of their pets and winners are picked by the set of judges which often include popular DC bloggers and journalists.

This year, the winners came from Senator Boxer’s office (Dog), Representative Mike Honda’s office (Cat) and a rabbit (Exotic) from Senator Warren’s office. If you doubt their cuteness, see the pics below for proof or check out this link that has ALL of the nominated pets.

The panel of celebrity judges included NBC Washington’s Angie Goff, The Hill’s Judy Kurtz, POLITICO’s Helena Bottemiller Evich, FishbowlDC’s Nick Massella and WJLA/WTOP’s Dr. Katy Nelson. The judges narrowed down the competitive field of hundreds of furry, feathered and fuzzy entries to the top five cutest pets in each category. Then, in the spirit of true democracy, the voting public determined the overall winners through online voting via Facebook.

U.S. Representative Jeff Denham, – whose dog “Lily” was a 2013 Cutest Pets Contest winner – unveiled this year’s winners.

AHI’s President, Alex Mathews, provided opening remarks to kick off the night’s festivities.

“The Cutest Pet’s Contest is held in conjunction with AHI’s Pet Night, a longstanding favorite event on the Hill where we celebrate the bond between people and their pets. The availability of medicines to keep animals healthy plays an important role in promoting the human- animal bond. Increased awareness about the relationship between human and animal health helps to prevent disease transmission and helps protect public health,” said Mathews.

Famously spotted in the crowd:
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL), Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY), Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), AHI’s Alex Mathews, Ron Phillips, Rich Carnevale, Brigid Zeller, Annie Drinkard, Story Partners: Amos Snead, Trudi Boyd, Jen Voss, Elyse Petroni, Lauren Culbertson, CQ-Roll Call’s Tom Williams, Edith Zimmerman