Top cat Mabel is purr-fect winner of Pet Idol (From Worcester News)

Top cat Mabel is purr-fect winner of Pet Idol

9:00am Monday 22nd December 2008 in Video By Richard Vernalls, @rvernallsWN #worcsnews

AFTER hundreds of entries and thousands of votes this year’s Worcester News Pet Idol proved she was the cat’s whiskers.

Mabel, the 18-week-old British short hair cat, was crowned overall champion and top cat earning a perfect 10 from the judging panel.

Owner Clair Hughes, of Church Road, Worcester, said she was over the moon that her much-loved moggy had bagged the top prize of £500 JustForPets vouchers.

She said: “I’m surprised, we didn’t expect it at all.”

Asked what she would be spending the winnings on, she replied: “It will buy a few toys and food of course.

“We haven’t got a cat flap yet either so we can take care of that.

“She’ll be treated like royalty of course – well she is anyway, but even more so.”

The proud winner was initially selected in the top 10 in her category following an unprecedented 6,640 total votes this year, up more than 2,000 on last year.

There was also 405 total entries, up from 369 last year.

Awards were decided by a judging panel consisting of Jim Weston, managing director of JustForPets, editor of your Worcester News, Kevin Ward and the newspaper’s promotions manager Sarah Bevan.

Mr Weston said: “It was great to see so many entries and we all had a bit of fun.

“What is nice to see is that people in Worcestershire have so much affection for their pets.”

After tough deliberations, the winner of the top dog category was bounding seven-month-old black labrador Frodo, owned by Hazel Davis and Sean Lewis, bagging £350 in vouchers.

Miss Davis, of Gillam Street, Worcester, said: “I think that’s going to buy a few sacks of dog food and some Christmas presents for him.”

In the specialist Other Animals category Mint the female Devon Down lamb took the glory with a proud Michelle Weston, collecting the trophy on behalf of her family in Crowle.

Bouncing Staffordshire Bull Terrier dog Jack shared the glory with owner Mark Birbeck for the Pets Who Look Like Their Owners category.

Mr Birbeck said: “Jack’s feeding the family this month with his winnings but £50 will go to the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Rescue charity.”