We've crowned the CAT MODEL 2021

After several rounds of voting and heated discussion within our cat-expert and design team, LucyBalu selected five four-legged finalists from 200 furry applicants and invited them to a shoot on 25 July at Hanna Hamata's hair salon in Munich's Glockenbach neighbourhood. Eight more velvet paws were able to pose comfortably at home for the cat model contest, since travelling would have been too stressful for them. Whether live in the studio or joining digitally from home, every participating cat skilfully showed off LucyBalu's new products. The shoot featured the brand-new FIGARO fur brushes, handcrafted in the Black Forest, as well as the soon-to-launch hand-thrown porcelain food bowls from Berlin.

Our live-shoot participants

Every one of our live participants was unique in their own special way.

Gnocchi's (left) elegant walk was reminiscent of a tiger. Ink & Sky (above) also left a lasting impression as the perfect shooting duo.

Nacho (above) enchanted us with his incredibly beautiful big eyes and ultimately won over the jury.

Winner of hearts: the characterful tomcat Indiana Jones. (right)

Cat Model Title 2021 goes to Nacho, Kito and Kirby

Despite the odd diva moment and typical feline stubbornness, our furry finalists proved their talent during the shooting sessions. The result was a wealth of images, every one of which had cover potential for the new LucyBalu magazine. Alongside crowd favourite Indy, three more four-legged friends competed for the live-shoot winning title: the young but remarkably clever British Shorthair tomcat Gnocchi, who can give a high-five, and the curious and playful jumping champion Nacho, also a British Shorthair. Rounding out the group were the two silver-white British Longhair tomcats Ink and Sky, who both love playing to the camera.

Meanwhile, the home shoots saw a neck-and-neck race between the Berlin teenage Birman cats Kito and Kirby, who live with a musician and therefore even have their own Spotify artist account, and the five lovers of Scandi style, Spencer, Nala, Emilio, Ophelia & Othello, as well as the friendly stray cat Leila from Bulgaria. After the LucyBalu jury convened once more last week and reviewed countless images, the decision was announced on Instagram on Saturday. The winner of the Cat Model Contest 2021 in the live-shoot category is tomcat Nacho, while Kito and Kirby took the win in the home-shoot category.

LucyBalu founders Dr Mathias Wahrenberger and Sebastian Frank are delighted with the lively participation and are very happy with the choice of their purring winners, who will grace the LucyBalu homepage and present the new products in the LucyBalu magazine as well.

Our home-shoot participants

Kito & Kirby are not only Cat Model 2021 but also well-known Spotify stars. instagram/crystalf44 (above)

Emilio during his home shoot with instagram/catlife.daily (below)

There were plenty of cuddles at instagram/justlivingathome (above)

instagram/thesunnyhome, a very personal favourite, melted quite a few LucyBalu hearts with their trio (below)

Winner of hearts – backpacking tomcat Indiana Jones

While our cats were busy stretching, professionally lounging and purring their way through brushing sessions in front of the camera, one cat stood out among the top-model talent for her uniquely remarkable story.

The eleven-year-old tomcat Indiana Jones, known as Indy, has already travelled far and wide, journeying via Mexico, Spain and Italy to reach LucyBalu's Cat Model Contest in Munich. Rather unusual for a cat, but not for Indy, since his flight-attendant owner Eva didn't want to keep the wide world from her tomcat. Indy was born in Mexico, where Eva adopted him eleven years ago and lived with him for a while before the two moved together to Spain. They were inseparable from the very start and are now seasoned travel buddies, as Indy gets to join Eva on city trips ever since they've lived in Europe. "Sometimes I just found it so sad to leave him behind when I went on holiday. So I started taking him along," Eva explains. Together the two have already travelled to Berlin, Prague and, last year, Italy. With Indy quite literally along for the ride, Eva also travelled to the LucyBalu shoot and explained: "Indy loves watching the surroundings from his backpack, and the people we meet are delighted too. Many want to take a photo and suddenly only have eyes for Indiana Jones." Indy certainly has model talent, and he's definitely the winner of hearts, even though he narrowly missed first place in the final.