U.S. Sen.-elect Tim Kaine may have kept outgoing Sen. Jim Webb’s seat blue, but thousands of Virginia voters preferred a cat to either Kaine or his Republican challenger, George Allen.



According to Hank the Cat’s campaign website, he tallied more than 6,000 votes as of Thursday morning. That may have been good for third place, as it accounts for more than a fifth of the write-in votes reported by the Virginia Board of Elections.



And that’s despite a negative online campaign by the fake Super PAC Canines for a Feline-Free Tomorrow.



Hank’s campaign began last winter as a spoof of the election process.