Palisades Cats Are Semi-Finalists in Internet ‘The Friskies’ Awards

The road to cat stardom isn’t easy, but Pacific Palisades resident Chase Holiday and her five cats – Merlin, Yogi, Elfin, Buddah and Fairy Princess (anyone else sense a theme here?) have managed to beat out thousands of video submissions to become semi-finalists for ‘The Friskies’ awards.

‘The Friskies’ are awarded to the best new Internet cat videos of the year. Just head on over here to vote for Holiday’s cats in their quest for super Internet stardom. Winners take hom a gold-plated Friskie award, a Catuette Trophy and $5,000.

Holiday’s love of cats knows no bounds. Her former two cats died at the age of 22, and she then monitored a Siamese rescue site and fell for three brothers; Merlin, Yogi and Elfin, before also falling for Fairy Princess.

A few years later she found a couple of cats and set up her YouTube channel to find them homes.  She kept one—Buddha, the youngest—and the channel grew from there, documenting the crazy and hilarious escapades of her five cat brigade. 

With her “Careers for Cats,” video (her entry for the Friskies Awards) Holiday recognized how the antics of her cats mirrored real-life, and the idea blew up from there.   

From thousands of entries, Friskies and the contest judges selected 20 semi-finalists to compete for a spot as one of 12 finalists. The top four category winners and one fan favorite winner will be awarded $25,000 in total cash prizes and gold-plated Catuette trophies at “The Friskies” Award Show October 15, 2013. The show will be hosted by comedian and cat owner Michael Ian Black, and broadcast online at www.TheFriskies.com.

Voting is open now at www.TheFriskies.com through noon ET September 16, 2013. People can vote once a day per entry, per person, per email address. Here is the link to Holiday’s video. The 20 semi-finalists include five entries in each of four categories: Catventure, Cat Comedy, Rescue Cat, and Pursuit of Food or Treat. Friskies asks voters to consider the judging criteria when voting:

• Originality and overall artistic impression
• Audience appeal and entertainment quality
• Sense that there’s a story being told
•  Portraying cat’s perspective