New York Cat Nominated For Nationwide Hambone Award

Have You Heard of The Hambone Awards?

Every year Nationwide Insurance receives millions of pet insurance claims. According to their website, these claims range from "the mundane to the truly unusual."

To honor the strangest, most unique pet insurance claims of the year, Nationwide created The Hambone Awards.

They write "Each story we highlight is meant to exemplify the strength of our pets and their pet parents, and to spotlight the amazing skills of their trusted veterinarians."

Nationwide adds:

It’s also a way to highlight all the things that can happen—and have happened—and the importance of being prepared.

The first Hambone Award went to a dog who "got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire holiday ham while waiting for someone to find him." Does the name of the award make sense to you now? Thankfully, the dog was found and only suffered from a mild case of hypothermia.

New York Cat Nominated for 2025 Hambone Award

This years Hambone nominees were recently announced and one of them is from the Empire State.

Salem, who happens to be the only cat nominated this year, is from New York and has a unique nomination story.

David, Salem's owner and a Nationwide member, dropped his Airpods after a long night at work. When he went to pick the Airpods up off the floor, one was missing. David's pet parent mind immediately thought Salem ate the Airpod, so he brought the cat to the emergency vet.

READ MORE: 5 Puppies Saved From NYC Ready For Adoption in the HV

However he checked his "Find My iPhone" app right before Salem went in for an Xray and it showed the Airpod was at the house. So, David took Salem back home.

When they got home, David realized the  Airpods being tracked, wasn't the missing one. David tells Nationwide:

“I had that panic again of being a parent. I'm like, ‘I really need to make sure that she didn't eat it.’ I go back to the ER at 6 a.m. and finally get the X-ray.

The X-ray didn't find any Airpods in Salem's belly. Thankfully, Nationwide covered "the bill for this just-in-case experience."

Vote for Salem's story at petinsurance.com!

Other Hambone Award Nominees

All together there are 10 Hambone Award nominees. As mentioned above Salem is the only cat to be nominated this year.

The rest of the 9 nominees are dogs. Like Wash who was adopted from a rescue in Arkansas. Wash's story is pretty funny, according to Nationwide, Wash would chomp on "every single cicada he could find."

Then there's Ziya, a dog from California who went head-to-head with a bull while on a walk with his owner. Ziya ended up losing a tooth in the scuffle.

Take a look at a full list of the nominees on the Nationwide website.