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Polydactyl
Cat
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A
polydactyl cat is a cat with a congenital physical anomaly,
with more than usual number of toes on one or all of its paws
as a result of a cat body type genetic mutation. In animals
including humans, polydactyly (or polydactylism, also known
as hyperdactyly) is the anatomical abnormality of having more
than the usual number of digits on the hands or feet.
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Description
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Normal
cats have four toes and one dewclaw on each front paw and four
toes on each hind paw. Polydactyl cats may have as many as seven
digits on front and/or hind paws, and various combinations of
anywhere from four to seven are common, although each of the
front and rear paws are typically the same. Polydactyly is most
commonly found on the front paws only, with polydactyly of all
four paws being less common. It is rare for a cat to have polydactyl
hind paws only.
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The
true polydactyly - commonly called mitten foot, mitten cat or
thumb cat condition - is a congenital abnormality, genetically
inherited as an autosomal dominant trait of the Pd gene with
incomplete penetrance. This type of polydactyly is not life-threatening
and usually not even debilitating to a cat. Some polydactyl
kittens initially have more difficulty in learning to walk and
climb than normal animals. However in some cases it appears
to improve the dexterity of the animal. For example, a common
variation of polydactyly with six toes on the front paws, with
two opposing digits on each, (comparable in use to human thumbs)
enables the cat to learn and perform feats of manual dexterity
generally not observed in non-polydactyl cats, such as opening
latches or catching objects with a single paw.
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Nobel
Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway was one of the more famous
lovers of polydactyl cats,
after being first given a six-toed cat by a ship's captain.
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 sixty descendants of his cats (about half
of which are polydactyl). Because of his love for these animals,
Hemingway cat, or simply Hemingway, is a slang term which has
come to describe polydactyls.
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