Hemingway Cats
Tough guy that he was, Hemingway had a definite soft spot for cats, especially polydactyl cats, with six toes on each foot. His first six-fingered feline was named Snowball, and he went on to have many more. When he wasn’t eating porcupines, shooting bears, making them fight lions, or watching bullfighting, he loved animals! He had fifty-two cats, sixteen dogs, a hundred pigeons, and three cows running around his Key West home.
Today, polydactyl cats are synonymous with Hemingway, referred to as “Hemingway cats.” Fittingly, Hemingway’s last words were, “Goodnight, my kitten,” which he said to his last wife, Mary.
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