Nine days ago the cat-food maker Friskies held a “best cat video” award ceremony. Yahoo News reports the doings:
More than 1,400 videos were submitted to the Friskies awards this year. A panel of judges and online voters narrowed the selection to 12 finalists in four categories.
And to honor the finalists, Friskies brought out a roster of cat-world celebrities to entertain a live audience both in person and over the Web. The festivities included a professional ballet dancer and violinist performing an ode to the Nyan Cat, an a cappella choir performing all “meow” renditions of classic songs, the creator of the Henri Le Chat Noir videos and Animal Planet’s “Must Love Cats” host John Fulton singing acoustic cat songs that included lines such as, “The Internet was made for kittens, the Internet was made for cats and I don’t have a problem with that.”
And good stuff for kittehs:
Most important, Friskies announced it had donated 250,000 cans of cat food to 25 animal shelters across the country to help celebrate the awards show.
And the winner of the first-ever Friskies award was Mick Szydlowski for his video, “Oskar’s First Toys.” Oskar is a cat born without eyes, and Mick and his girlfriend, Bethany, captured video of the newborn cat playing with a toy ball.
Szydlowski received a year’s supply of cat food and a check for $15,000, which he says will be used to buy toys for Oskar and to help pay for their upcoming move from Omaha, Neb., to Seattle.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Szydlowski told Yahoo News. “Cats deserve a show like this. And Oskar deserves some of the winnings, maybe all of the winnings.
“Oskar is completely blind, but he doesn’t let that slow him down one bit,” Szydlowski said. “He’s healthy, he’s happy, he does everything a regular cat would do.”
Szydlowski says he hopes all the attention his Oskar videos have received will help convince people that cats with disabilities can still make great pets. “A lot of people assume it’s a death sentence, which is not the case,” he said.
Here’s the winning video (note: lachrymose music),which makes me tear up a bit. It’s touching to see Oskar playing like a normal cat, and, never having had eyes, he won’t know what he’s missing. Kudos to his owners for adopting a blind cat.
Here are the other winners, none of which approach Oskar’s video or, for that matter any, Henri’s oeuvre.
Other “catuette” winners each received a year’s supply of Friskies and $2,500:
- Catness: “Black Cat Stick ’em Up” starring Cole; Tampa, Fla.
- Catcom: “Cat Alarm Clock” starring Boo; Elkhart, Ind.
- Catventure: “Cardboard Dreams” starring Milo, Otis, Barrett and Bates; Plano, Texas
- Catchall: “Kitty Plays Fetch” starring Nylah; Cherry Hill, N.J.
Recent videos are amazing!
Oskar is lovely.
Watching sweet Oskar playing is indeed heartwarming, and I have to go and pet Dayo now.
That is a very skillful Cat with a beautiful brain.
Reblogged this on suzzeq's Blog.
Bourbonnais (Illinois) is home to a no-kill cat shelter with a special House for HIV/FIV cats, a Barn for incontinent or ferals, and a regular Shelter that includes smaller rooms with populations of blind, paralyzed, and cats with neurological problems that wobble and can barely stand.
Yet all of them are remarkably healthy, happy and are treated with dignity and respect. Cat adapt quite well to being pampered, no matter what their condition.
I’m very glad that Oskar has a good home and a happy life, and that his slaves got a nice little windfall.
I’m even more glad that Baihu is happy and healthy and has perfect eyesight. We just got back from a tour of the back yard, and he’s now stretched across the sunny threshold of the front door.
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Yeah, that made me cry. What a thing of beauty is little Oskar relishing a jingly toy!
As a parent to a special needs cat, I know how wonderful they can be. I rescued a pair of kittens from the snow a few winters ago, and one ended up having the “Manx Syndrome.” He has now undergone two surgeries related to his condition, the first when he was not too much bigger than Oskar. He has been on medication nearly his entire life.
He doesn’t even seem to realize that he’s “different,” and he seems to appreciate life more than any other person (human or animal) I’ve ever met. And he shows his appreciation for all that I do for him through his loyalty to me. (They say that Manx cats are very “dog-like,” and in this sense, it’s very true.) Even when I had to put him in the “hospital” earlier this year, he always began meowing when he’d hear me coming despite his pain and weakness, and he always greeted me with purring.
If only we humans could have such a positive attitude as these special creatures, we’d all be much better off!
We have a blind kitty too. She has even played fetch with a paper ball. She does everything our sighted kitties do. Her name is Frisky, and she is a tabby much like Oskar.
It would be fascinating to know what images Oskar has in his “mind’s eye”…
A friend of mine has a blind cat which she adopted as a kitten. Homer (the name was really inevitable considering his condition and my friend) is a very active sweetie, just like Oscar. But one thing I have noticed is that his vibrissae (whiskers) tend to be kind of blunted short. I assume this is from abrasion from his reliance on them for navigation.
Ah, bells inside the balls. That explains quite a lot.