Cats in Art: Key West Kitties (4)

From my continuing weekly series on cats in art.

The bride and I recently returned from a fine week with friends in Key West, where we were fascinated with the Ernest Hemingway Home and Musuem and its array of cats, many of which exhibit the polydactyl trait (6 toes).

This is the art, a "sculpture" created by one of the cats in wet concrete.  

And this kitty is perched on top of the memorial stone where the Hemingway cats are laid to rest after death.  I guess she isn't freaked out by the notion of death.

Cats in Art: Key West Kitties (3)

From my continuing weekly series on cats in art.

The bride and I recently returned from a fine week with friends in Key West, where we were fascinated with the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum and its array of cats, many of which exhibit the polydactyl trait (6 toes).

Image credit Gary, of a painting hanging in the house.  As previously in the series, I did not note the painter or the date, but you juts gotta love the alert, interested expression on this kitty's face...just waiting for something good to happen.

And this was another of the cats who inhabit the place.  This one looks exactly like our cat, Ca Beere, except for the fact that Ca Beere's tail is shortened due to an infection which led to amputation.  

She gets along just fine with the shortened tail, except that on occasion her leaping is off due to the lack of a tail for balance.  Just the other day Ca Beere tried to execute a leap from the bed to the dresser in our bedroom and came up just a tad short, crashing into the top drawer and running off, shaking her head.  Cats hate to have people see them screw up.

Cats in Art: Key West Kitties (2)

From my continuing weekly series on cats in art.

The bride and I recently returned from a fine week with friends in Key West, where we were fascinated with the Ernest Hemingway Home and Musuem and its array of cats, many of which exhibit the polydactyl trait (6 toes).

Image credit Gary, of a painting hanging in the house, I believe in the main upstairs bedroom.  I did not note the painter or date. 

This gray was quite friendly.  The rules of the road for the Hemingway Home tell guests not to pick up the cats, but petting them is just fine.  They'll exit if the petting gets too much.

Mostly they just lay around, people-watching.

Cats in Art: Key West Kitties

From my continuing weekly series on cats in art.

The bride and just returned from a splendid week with friends in Key West.  We could not have wished for a better weather week there, combined with a crappy weather week here, even if we were the weather gods and had smiled upon ourselves.

Image credit Gary

This image is of a painting that hangs in the Ernest Hemingway Home museum in Key West.  I did not take note of the artist or date, just snapped a shot of the oil painting, which is approximately 30" x 24".

Seems that Mr. Hemingway--for all of his manly man-ness and machismo--was a cat lover.  He was especially enamored of polydactyl kitties, which have 6 toes instead of 5. From the Ernest Hemingway Home museum web site:

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is home to approximately 40-50 polydactyl (six-toed) cats. Cats normally have five front toes and four back toes. 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 4 and 5 toes can still mother or father six-toed kittens. Most cats have extra toes on their front feet and sometimes on their back feet as well. Sometimes it looks as if they are wearing mittens because they appear to have a thumb on their paw.

Ernest Hemingway was given a white six-toed cat by a ship's captain and some of the cats who live on the museum grounds are descendants of that original cat, named Snow White. Key West is a small island and it is possible that many of the cats on the island are related. The polydactyl cats are not a particular breed. The trait can appear in any breed, Calicos, Tabbies, Tortoise Shell. White, Black, etc. They vary in shapes, sizes, colors and personalities.

The descendants of Hemingway's cats still inhabit the property today.  Look for much more cat goodness from Hemingway in the days to come!