World Hum | Travel | Hemingway Cats Have ‘Historic, Social and Tourism Significance’

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7.10.07

Hemingway Cats Have ‘Historic, Social and Tourism Significance’

In a World Hum story about visiting Ernest Hemingway’s old Key West house, Doug Mack noted that each one of the dozens of cats residing there has “a calm but vaguely sinister look on its face, creating a mildly Hitchcockian scene.” That scene—made all the more Hitchcockian because some of the cats famously have six toes—has been at the center of a controversy ever since the USDA claimed the historic site is an “exhibitor” of cats and requires a special license. But now, the house has won some support from the Key West City Commission.

According to the AP, the local government body has exempted the house and roughly 50 cats that reside there from a law limiting households to four domestic animals, and it has also declared that the cats are not on exhibition.

The AP quotes a new ordinance as stating, in part: “The cats reside on the property just as the cats did in the time of Hemingway himself. They are not on exhibition in the manner of circus animals. ... The City Commission finds that family of polydactyl Hemingway cats are indeed animals of historic, social and tourism significance.”

The cats are descendants of a feline given as a gift to Hemingway in 1935.

Photo by The Anti-Zim via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Posted by Jim Benning • 7.10.07
Categories: Weblog • Florida • Icons: Ernest Hemingway

Permalink • Comments (2)

COMMENTS

How can i get a hemingway cat and what is the cost of them i think they are so pretty and unique

By on 6.14.08 at 06:16 AM

They definitely sound like some cool cats. Maybe someday I will be able to visit and see there vaguely sinister looks on their faces. Till then, thanks for the post.

By dog traveling on 8.27.08 at 09:07 AM