OK, so maybe pets have not been the subject of a lot of great art.

That doesn't detract one woof from the entertainment potential of Best In Show -- a combination art show/SPCA fundraiser at the Market Gallery in downtown Roanoke.

Named for the 2000 Warner Brothers comedy about show dogs, Best in Show will feature 85 to 90 little paintings of dogs, cats and anything else that might be considered a pet. (There is at least one hermit crab.)

About $1,300 collected from the $15-$20 entry fee for painters is already earmarked for the SPCA, gallery artist Ann Glover said. Part of the sale price of each painting will also go to the SPCA -- the exact amount is up to the individual artists. Donations also will be accepted.

One pet painting will be chosen to grace the cover of next year's SPCA pet calendar. The 2006 cover of a dog and a cat by Greg Osterhaus has been a hit, SPCA board member Barbara Dalhouse said.

The artists of Market Gallery, a warren of galleries and studios on the City Market next to Paradox restaurant, conceived Best in Show as a follow-up to their popular Mother exhibit of May 2004, several said. In that exhibit, artists working on Masonite panels paid tribute to mothers.

After that show proved a hit, "We started talking about the possibility of doing something to help a charity at the same time," said artist Ed Bordett. "It sounded like something fun to do in winter."

Dalhouse was visiting Bordett when she first heard the idea of a show to benefit the SPCA. She suggested putting the winner on the cover of next year's SPCA calendar, she said, and Bordett loved the idea.

Pet paintings were solicited via an open call for contributions. Interested artists received a 10-inch square Masonite panel on which to paint a pet. All artists were welcomed, including children.

As a result, "You're going to find everything from complete amateurs to highly professional artists," said Bordett. Bordett painted a fat cat of dubious ownership who currently lives in his house. Bordett's 13-year-old daughter, Ruth, contributed a painting of the cat, too, which Bordett says is in a more whimsical vein and involves a piano.

The pet panels, which were still flowing into the gallery this week, will cover one gallery wall. Some larger pet paintings and sculptures will grace the remainder of the gallery, the artists said.

Jamie Nervo Cohan -- probably the valley's pre-eminent painter of wacky-looking animals -- painted a dog for the show. "He has a big tongue and he's hanging his head out the car window," she explained. A larger Cohan painting, "Katie" -- a kind of psychological portrait of a neighbor's golden retriever -- is on another wall.

Artist Cathryn Hankla painted her late dog, Agnetha -- named for a singer in the rock group ABBA. Glover was still working on two panels at midweek. One depicts many different animals in a style reminiscent of Edward Hicks' famous "Peaceable Kingdom" paintings of the 1800s. A chocolate Labrador retriever is forefront. The other is a takeoff on the well-known poker-playing dog paintings of Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. Glover's version includes her late Jack Russell terrier, Stewart, among the card players.

Which leads us to the delicate question: Just how much of this is really art?

"I think you'll have to come and judge for yourself," Glover said diplomatically. "I think the work is interesting. In a good way."

"Amazing," added artist Ann Hale.

And anyway, who cares? "It's a great cause," Cohan said of the SPCA angle. "If your dog gets loose, they'll pick him up and feed him and give him a room."

In Bordett's mind, the sheer number of portraits will lend the show a certain grandeur.

"It will be beautiful," he pledged.