This is my cat Scooter. I found him in the woods when he was a kitten and noticed right away that there was something weird about his feet. He had seven toes on his front paws! I took him to my dad and asked about it, and he said I’d found a “Hemingway cat”. He explained to me that the writer Ernest Hemingway had a seven-toed cat that lived with him in his home on Key West, and that my kitten must be one of its many, many descendants. Apparently these mutant cats still inhabit his property and are spreading their mitten feet genes among the population.
Later I looked up some information on these cats. I learned that they are normally referred to as “polydactyl” cats. Polydactyl means “extra digits” and is a naturally occurring genetic mutation among cats.The mutation occurs during gestation when the limbs are developing. It affects the way the tissue grows where the toes will eventually form. The gene for polydactyly is dominant. If one of the parents is a polydactyl cat, then most of the kittens will most certainly be as well Polydactyly is harmless, though the extra claws may develop a tendency to curl and grow into the cats paw. This is easily avoided by regular clippings. The number of toes can also vary, as can their structure.Normal cats have five front toes and four back toes. Scooter has seven toes in the front, and five in the back. Polydactyl cats can have six or seven toes. Some only have an abnormal number on the front set, and some have all paws affected.
These cats were considered to be superior rodent-hunters or even good luck charms by sailors. Some cats are able to use their extra toes like opposable thumbs with surprising dexterity, using them for play and to manipulate small objects. Perhaps with more time and evolution they might be able to open their food cans by themselves…
Bioventures 
My family had a Hemingway cat when I was younger. We even called him Hemingway. I loved counting his toes over and over again. Since I couldn’t count very high yet when I was younger. I remember thinking his paws looked like, what I imagined in my little kid head, big cat paws(tiger, lion, etc) looked like. We’ve always had a lot of cats in my family over the years, they just show up at our home and wonder off when they feel like it, and Hemingway’s paws were significantly larger than the other cat’s. Despite being really big and having large paws and looking pretty tough all together he was one of the most laid back and gentle cats we’ve ever had. So cool.
I’m wondering if the Hemmingway cat started with Hemmingway’s cat or if there had been others before that. Maybe we know them as Hemmingway cats because they had a famous owner…but really they had been around a lot longer.
Yes, they were around long before Hemingway took them to Key West. They were popular ship cats and plentiful in Europe, according to the websites I was using. Perhaps Hemingway was the one to bring them to the States?
A family friend has a Hemingway cat, named Whitey. It’s a rather ironic name since his coloration is completely black. Its very cool to see one of these cats up close because in pictures it makes it look very ugly and more of a hassle for the cat, but really they are quite charming on a cat, and they have no problem dealing with it. My question about them is if they truly are better hunters then normal cats due to their extra fingers, but from what I have read before about Polydactyl is that the extra finger doesn’t have a joint and just moves with the closes jointed finger.
Man, all I’m thinking of right now is the six-fingered Count Rugen from The Princess Bride. Of course, I imagine your kitty hasn’t run afoul of any Spanish swordsmen.
I would also like to note that certain dog breeds have a similar trait, called a dewclaw. It’s a mostly useless digit on their foot that’s usually removed not long after birth. A rare few dogs even have TWO of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewclaw
I don’t know if my cat is a polydactyl, but he has six fingers. He is the nicest cat ever.
Back when I was in 7th grade, my history teacher was known to always take care of kittens and cats that people brought to him. One time, he brought two kittens to class that had one extra toe on their paws. Then he gave a whole lecture on polydactyl cats instead of the history lecture he had initially planned. We even got to pet and hold the kittens!