The name simply refers to any cat with extra toes. Typically, cats have five toes on their front paws and four on their back paws. But Hemingway cats have a condition called “polydactyly” and ...

Perhaps the most famous fan of these cats was the late Ernest Hemingway, who was presented with a five-toed cat by a sea captain in the 1950s. Following Hemingway’s death in 1961, his Key West, Fla., ...