A playful photo of a kitten's sneak attack took the top prize in this year's Comedy Pet Photography Awards
- The annual Comedy Pet Photography Awards determine the funniest pet photos of the year.
- Michel Zoghzoghi won this year's contest with his photo titled "A Life-Changing Event."
Michel Zoghzoghi's photo showing one of his kittens preparing to pounce on the other took first place in the 2023 Comedy Pet Photography Awards.
After the finalists were announced in July, a panel of judges including photographers, comedians, and veterinarians determined the winning image. Zoghzoghi, a wildlife photographer based in Lebanon, earned the top prize in both the cat category and the overall competition with his image, "A Life-Changing Event."
Zoghzoghi usually photographs larger cats like lions, jaguars, and cheetahs in the wild, but he wrote in the caption of his award-winning photo that kittens Max and Alex form a "lethally cute duo."
"I had more fun and surprises taking photos of these two characters than during my most adventurous wildlife photography trips," he wrote in the caption of the image, taken at his home in Lebanon.
Zoghzoghi told Insider that he fostered Max and Alex for a few months in 2020, "despite the strong and vocal objections of Gomez and Huguette, my two resident cats." The kittens were then adopted by a family who saw photos that he'd posted on social media.
"I am not sure if they heard the news of their fame yet, as the family left Lebanon and permanently relocated abroad," he said of the kittens in the award-winning photo. "All I know is that they were very happy the last time I saw them."
As the winner of the 2023 contest, Zoghzoghi won a cash prize of £500, or about $636, a camera bag from ThinkTank, and a trophy.
"As a wildlife photographer, I never really considered sending photos to a pet competition until I discovered Comedy Pets," he said in a statement released by the competition. "It's witty, it's fun, and the photos are hilarious. I am extremely happy and proud to have won it as all the finalists were really outstanding and some of them made me laugh to tears. Pets are a very, very important part of our families and should be celebrated."
You can see all the winners of the Comedy Pet Photography Awards here.