Feline antics are among the most watched videos on the internet. Now all those catnip capers and hairball horrors are being recognized by the cat community as a new hybrid breed of film, and, last week, The Friskies Awards Show, styled just like the glamorous Oscars, was held in Hollywood honoring the best cat videos in four different categories and naming the overall winner, a video about a blind kitten called “Oskar’s First Toys”.

A beaming Mick Szydlowski of Omaha, NE, Oskar’s pet parent, was on hand to receive a gold-plated catuette and a check for $15,000 and told the audience dressed in “Friskies formal wear” as per the invitation dress code, that the video was taken a day after the kitten was adopted from a shelter.

“Oskar is completely blind, but he doesn’t let that slow him down one bit. He’s healthy, he’s happy, he does everything a regular cat would do,” Szydolowski said.

The awards were streamed live so that catlovers curled up at home could watch the guests sipping champagne and nibbling on cat-themed cupcakes,standing under specially created canned cat food chandeliers while enjoying catcentric entertainment hosted by You-Tube host Michael Buckley which included a cat-pella group meowing their way through familiar arias, interfering with each other the way cats do and interrupting their musical rendition to mime throwing up hairballs. The award catuettes, gold plated cat-shaped figures weighing 12 lbs, like the average all-American kitty, were placed on stage on a tall kitty condo and the envelopes were drawn out of a cat carrier complete with ears and a tail.

– Sandy Robins (See Oskar’s video above!)