Ernest Hemingway’s 6-Toed Cats

Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway was a famous aficionado of polydactyl cats, after being first given, by a ship captain, a six-toed cat he named Snow White.

Sailors were long known to value polydactyl cats especially for their extraordinary climbing and hunting abilities as an aid in controlling shipboard rodents. Some sailors thought they bring good luck at sea.

The Ernest Hemingway House was the residence of author Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Florida, United States. It is at 907 Whitehead Street, across from the Key West Lighthouse. This was Hemingway’s home from 1931 to 1939, although he retained title to the home until he died. Because of his love for these animals, polydactyl cats are sometimes referred to as “Hemingway cats”.

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 fifty descendants of his cats (about half of which are polydactyl).

In 2009, the cats became the subject of federal litigation after a museum visitor expressed concern about the cats’ welfare. United States Department of Agriculture investigators visited the museum and subsequently ordered the museum to take measures to tag the cats for identification and to shelter them. The museum fought the regulations in court but lost their case in the court of appeals, which ruled that the cats “substantially affect” interstate commerce and thus are protected by the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. The house does not sell cats but does continue a selective breeding program for them.

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