A cat who was rushed to the vet after being closed in a folding sofa bed has been handed a national award, though one unlikely to ease his trauma. The black cat named Giles is the 2023 recipient of Nationwide's Hambone Award for most unusual pet insurance claim, "named in honor of a dog who ate an entire ham while trapped in a refrigerator," per UPI. As New York City couple Reid W. and Kaitlyn R. explain in a video, Giles loves hanging out in the space beneath their couch when the sofa bed is extended. So when Reid's parents came to visit, he made sure to warn them. "Literally when they walked in the door, I was like, 'There's one and only one rule in the house: 'When you're putting the couch back together, you have to make sure Giles isn't under the couch,'" says Reid.
Yet somehow the sofa bed was put away while Giles was inside. As Kaitlyn notes, "Giles tends to run towards the danger." Like all finalists for the award, Giles made a full recovery. "The [closing] mechanism or whatever bopped him in the face pretty good," Reid tells Nationwide. "Fortunately, it wasn't too bad. He did need some stitches," he adds in the video. Giles has also "picked up a particular phobia of, like, anything with a hinge on it," Reid notes. Having beat out nine other finalists in a public vote—including a pug found to be at risk of heat stroke after snoozing under a comforter, a goldendoodle who got her leg stuck in a storm drain, and a parrot who was slammed in a door—Giles received a trophy, a gift card, and had a donation to a pet-related charity made in his name. (More pets stories.)
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