Key West Hemingway's Famous 6-Toed Cats The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is home to approximately sixty cats. Normal cats have five front toes and four back toes. About half of the cats at the museum are polydactyl, which means they have extra toes.
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 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. Key West is a small island and it is possible that many of the cats on the island are related. They are all shapes, sizes, colors and personalities. The museum is a privately owned business, and the care and feeding of the cats is one of the many expenses of the business.