Kelli now has a Hemingway Cat.
Do you know what that is?
Cute cat, right?
Wait, his feet look really big...
Wow, that foot looks a little weird...closer, maybe??
Whoa. He has extra toes!!!!
Seven on each front foot, to be exact.
Kind of like a cat foot with the usual 5 toes. Then a thumb on the side. With a toe in between that's smaller and kind of hidden. That makes his feet look a little like hands. Little monkey hands.
Technically, this condition is called polydactyly. (Remember, I used to teach Biology...)
Lots of organisms can have this condition. People with polydactyly usually have an extra piece of tissue on the little finger side of the hand which is not functional. This person has a rarer form of it and the extra finger is on the thumb side!
Sometimes this happens on the feet. Kelli's cat has normal back feet, but you can see that this human foot has an extra pinky toe!
Now this one's even rarer--the extra digit is in the middle of the hand.
Wow.
Okay. Back to the cat. The reason he's called a Hemingway Cat is because of Ernest Hemingway.
Hemingway got his first cat from a ship's captain in Key West. This cat, probably a Maine Coon, had extra toes. It's believed that Maine Coon cats are the first to have had this condition. Their ancestors are thought to have hitched a ride aboard ships sailing to the US, so polydactyl cats are most commonly found along the east coast of the States. Hemingway loved his cats so much, the terms of his will provide for about 60 descendants (half of which are polydactyls) to reside at his home in Key West.
If you visit the Hemingway Home and Museum, you'll find the cats pretty much have their run of the place.
They sleep where they want,
drink what they want,
and come and go as they please.
The one drinking from the fountain looks an awfully lot like Kelli's cat.
So now that you've met the newest addition to the family, there's just one problem.
Kelli's cat has no name.
Any suggestions?
