It’s a tie! Meet Wichita’s cutest cats: a caring older kitty, a ‘fluffy little guy’
In The Eagle’s search for the cutest cat in the Wichita area, we’re happy to report that we found two.
In a tie, Asa in Wichita and Lambert (or Bert for short) in Newton, left the competition deadlocked, and we’re happy to crown both the cutest cat in Wichita.
The final round of our cutest cat poll received 22 votes, and Asa and Lambert each received nine. Both will move on to our national competition.
So, what makes them the cutest cats in Wichita? We spoke with their families to find out.
Meet ‘fluffy little guy’ Asa
Asa is six months old and was adopted by Leah Shenold when he as a kitten.
“[My friend] actually found his litter and rescued them, and then [checked] around seeing if anybody wanted to adopt them,” Shenold shared. “As soon as I saw the pictures and videos of him, I just couldn’t help myself.”
Shenold lives alone with Asa but just because she has no human roommates doesn’t mean her home is a quiet one.
“He’s very talkative, he loves to meow and lets you know that he needs something,” she said.
When asked how to explain Asa, Shenold said he’s a “fluffy little guy with a great personality.”
While Asa is still a small cat and was the runt of the litter, his personality makes up for it, Shenold said.
“He likes to play fetch, [he’ll] bring me, rubber bands. I’ll just fling them across the room, and he’ll go grab them and bring them back and drop them in front of me and look at me like, ‘Do it again,’” Shenold said.
Meet ‘heartwarming’ Bert
Bert, our other winner, found his family on his own.
Karen Robu lives out in the country, so having stray animals on the doorstep has been a common occurrence over the years. Bert showed up and never left.
“He was real skittish, and he wouldn’t come anywhere near anyone for a long time, and so it was probably ... a year and a half or two years maybe that, finally, my daughter decided she was going to work on [him],” Robu said.
Robu said ever since, Bert has shown himself to be the “loveliest guy,” especially when a new kitten showed up at the house.
“This summer, another little kitten showed up, and [Bert] was just so sweet,” Robu said. “I still wasn’t sure how he would react with this baby male cat who came by, and he just treats him like his baby. He snuggles him and cleans him, and they’re just the cutest together.
“If we go out and sit on the porch, [Bert] will come and sit on our lap, and if the baby is around the corner, if that baby cries, he will hop down off our lap and run around the corner and check on him. “
In fact, the story inspired one of Robu’s sermons at Plymouth Congregational Church, where she’s the minister.
“It has been really heartwarming for me in these past months to see how this cat interacts with this kitten and to see the care that he’s kind of like taken on, this responsibility that didn’t have to be his,” Robu said. “I just think if more of us could think like that, if we could help each other out, and if we could treat each other half as good as this cat treats this kitten, we’d be in a lot better place.”
