Each Contestant Hopes to Win by a Whisker : Animals: About 800 pampered felines are vying for a variety of honors at the Anaheim Convention Center. There are even categories for run-of-the-mill pets.

The Anaheim Convention Center this weekend is no place for anyone allergic to cats.

Nearly 800 felines of about 40 breeds are participating in the seventh annual International Cat Show, which started Saturday and will end today.

On Saturday, many cats were in cages covered with lace or containers decorated with feather boas; others had their pictures tacked up on a bulletin board in eye-catching poses, such as one black furball staring out from a white bathroom sink.

About 450 cats are in the main competition, which is reserved for the creme-de-la-creme felines especially bred for shows. Top awards will be given today at 4:30 p.m.

“It’s basically a beauty pageant,” show spokeswoman Elinor Silverman said.

The rest of the felines compete in three “whimsical” contests meant for the average pet, to show “that an ordinary cat can be a star too,” Silverman said.

There were other contests Saturday, like one for rescued or adopted felines that previously had been homeless. Categories ranged from longest whiskers to owner/cat look-alike. In another competition, judges graded candid photographs of pet cats.

Today’s contest is for black-and-white cats, otherwise known as the Socks look-alikes, in honor of the First Cat.

Beth Lewis of Woodland Hills said she nearly lost her 7-month-old Abyssinian while going from the Marriott Hotel to the convention center to enter the main competition.

“Abys do what they want when they feel like it and this one pushed open her cage door,” Lewis said. “A guy in a car honked and I looked in time to see her (the cat) going to the hotel’s storage area.”

Marriott employees had to help find her golden feline, named Austen.

But the Abyssinian’s adventurous trait was what originally convinced Lewis to start breeding them two years ago, and now she has three.

“They’re kind of hyper, which is wonderful because I don’t like couch potatoes,” she said.