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The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is home to nearly 60 polydactyl (six-toed) cats. Cats normally have five front toes and four back toes.
- About Half of Hemingway's Cats Are polydactyl.
- Hemingway’s Cats Have Creative Names.
- All of The Cats at Hemingway’s House Are Born there.
- Hemingway’s Cats Receive Annual check-ups.
- Hemingway’s Cats Were The Subject of A Federal Complaint.
- One of Hemingway’s Cats Was “Jailed.”
- Catnip Can Cause Problems For Hemingway's Cats.
- Hemingway’s Cats Survived Hurricane Irma.
- Hemingway’s Cats Are Laid to Rest on The Museum’s Grounds.
That means that they have extra toes. Cats normally have five toes in the front and four in the back; according to the Hemingway House and Museum website, “about half of the cats at the museum have the physical polydactyl trait but they all carry the polydactyl gene in their DNA, which means that the ones that have four and five toes can still moth...
The Hemingway House and Museum website notes that Hemingway named all of his cats after famous people, a tradition the curators continue today. Over the years, cats have been named after everyone from Zane Grey and Marilyn Monroe to president “Hairy” Truman, Fats Waller, Kermit “Shine” Forbes, Truman Capote, Bugsy Siegel, Billie Holiday, and Cary G...
Pita told Moore, “All the cats here were born here.” To control the population, “each female is allowed one litter; we keep a tom cat around to handle business, and then they’re fixed. We keep between 40 and 50. When Hemingway was here, there was … who knows. Sometimes reports of over 70, 80 cats.”
Those who are concerned about the welfare of the cats shouldn’t worry: They’re well taken care of. In fact, their vet, Dr. Edie Clark, comes to the museum once a week to check up on the cats and perform “routine procedures such as ear mite treatment, flea spraying, and worming,” as well as annual vaccinations, according to the museum's website.
The five-year battle kicked off in 2003, after a visitor—who was concerned about the cats’ welfare—filed a complaint with the federal government, according to NPR. The USDA claimed the museum was exhibiting the cats without the proper license (which it wouldn’t have been able to qualify for anyway—the license requires animals be enclosed). Employee...
In 2016, Martha Gellhorn—not the war correspondent who was Hemingway’s third wife, but the gray tabby named after her—nipped at a tourist (who apparently didn’t know how to decipher cat body language) and found herself behind bars at the vet’s office. “It was the first time ever and the woman was aggressive with the cat,” the home’s manager told th...
“Actually, catnip is a problem for us,” Pita told Moore. “People want to being catnip here and play with the cats, but when there’s 45, two of them want to go for the same cat thing. It can cause a little tussle.” The guide advised not bringing any catnip or treats, because the cats are on a particular diet. “We ask, don’t pick up the cats, but the...
A full evacuation of the Florida Keys was ordered when Hurricane Irma approached the islands in 2017, but 10 employees insisted on staying behind with the cats. “When we started to round up the cats to take them inside, some of them actually ran inside knowing it was time to take shelter,” curator Dave Gonzales told MSNBC. “Sometimes I think they’r...
According to the Herald-Tribune, when Hemingway’s cats pass away, they’re laid to rest in the gardens behind the house. “The burial spots are marked with concrete gravestones crudely etched with the names of now-deceased felines, some named for celebrities: Willard Scott, who died at age 12 in 1988; Kim Novak, who was 22 when she passed in 1997; an...
Author Ernest Hemingway became a famous aficionado of polydactyl cats after a ship captain gave him a six-toed cat that he named Snow White. [6][7][8] Upon Hemingway's death in 1961, his former home in Key West, Florida, became a museum and a home for his cats, and it currently houses approximately 50 descendants of his cats (about half of which...
Ernest Hemingway is remembered as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, a journalist, a boisterous hunter and fisherman, and as a lover of cats. Specifically, he is associated with polydactyl cats or cats that have more than the normal number of toes per foot.
Also known as Hemingway cats in honor of the cats that roam Ernest Hemingway's estate in Florida, most American polydactyl cats are born with at least one extra toe on each front foot. Some polydactyl cats have extra toes on their hind feet as well.
- American Polydactyl cats cost between $500 - $2,000.
- American Polydactyl cats tend to be medium in size. A fully grown American Polydactyl cat might weigh between 7-15 pounds or more and range in heig...
- The Average lifespan for American Polydactyl is 14-16 years.
- American Polydactyl are long-haired cats, so you do have to expect a certain amount of shedding from this breed, but they don't shed as much as oth...
www.wideopenspaces.com · story-ernest-The Story of Ernest Hemingway's 6-Toed Cats - Wide Open Spaces
Mar 29, 2021 · The story of Ernest Hemingway and his six-toed cats began with Snow White, a white polydactyl kitten that Hemingway received in the 1930s. The kitten was a gift from a sea captain named Stanley Dexter. Sailors favored polydactyl cats, believing they were good luck.
Nov 20, 2013 · Six-toed cats have something of a nautical history; sailors considered the cats lucky and often brought polydactyls along for long sea voyages.
