After two rounds of voting, Fresno Bee readers have crowned a pair of brothers as Fresno County’s cutest cats.
Boots McGoots, an 8-year-old gray tuxedo cat, and Kevin, an 8-year-old domestic shorthair tabby, donned their snazziest attire in a “friendly competition” among their home in Fresno.
Or maybe not so friendly, considering the pair are frenemies, according to owners Chadrick Pickens and Falon Kartch.
According to their owners, Boots McGoots is the caretaker of the cat family of five and wants nothing more than to have a relationship with Kevin, who is at the top of the food chain.
They each got 65% of the vote out of 127 participants. Here’s what to know about the competitors:
Who are the cutest cats in Fresno County?
Kevin was the first cat Kartch and Pickens adopted together.
Kartch had just lost the first cat she had rescued and was feeling “like an open wound,” she told the Fresno Bee.
It was Pickens’ idea to go to The Cat House on the Kings to get some cat snuggles. Kevin immediately crawled into her lap and “just would not budge,” she said.
Pickens read the Cat House’s blurb on Kevin — and looked at Kartch in disbelief. At the end of the blurb it read: “He would make a handsome addition to your home.”
Handsome was the name of Kartch’s cat who had just passed. After that, she visited Kevin every day for two weeks, so by the time she took him home they already had a relationship, she said.
He was about five months old then, and she raised him as if wearing outfits, walking on a leash and taking car rides was the norm. To this day, he’s a total mama’s boy, Pickens said.
“Robin was his Halloween costume. I picked it because I love Batman and Robin, and he’s kind of like my sidekick,” she said.
Kevin has the most nicknames of all their cats. She most often calls him Bubbalub.
He loves to be held and will come find Kartch so she’ll pick him up — then he’ll cup her face with his paws and lick it.
“He likes to be on my lap or near me as much as possible,” she said. “During COVID when I was teaching classes on Zoom, he was like my little TA (teaching assistant).”
Boots McGoots came from a neglectful situation and started showing up crying at their backdoor to become part of their cat family, Pickens said.
Now the only non-tabby is the caretaker of the whole tabby family.
“He’s like the nanny of cats,” Pickens said. “He likes to grab everybody and lick their forehead until he feels that their hair is straight enough.”
He’s also very vocal and “loves to tell it how it is,” Pickens said. One of Boots’ favorite past times is hunting his little mouse toy and crying from across the house until he drops it off in his parents’ room at night.
Boots got his name because he needed a last name at the vet — even though he doesn’t have boots.
“He has two knee-high socks and a slipper. You can’t go wrong with Boots in a bowtie,” Pickens said. “One of his other nicknames is Mr. Pink Nose, because he’s the only other one with the pink nose.”
Cutest cat and dog contests are taking place at more than 20 McClatchy newspapers across the United States.
Boots McGoots and Kevin will be entered into a second contest to determine the cutest cat in the country across more than 20 McClatchy newspapers, launching Monday, Nov. 10.