Need some luck? Maybe an extra finger would help you. Today we visit a museum filled with living cats that have an extra toe - this was considered lucky.
Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum
Imagine publishing 13 novels, 70 short stories, and 88 poems, and all anyone wants to talk about is your cats. Welcome to the life of Ernest Hemingway and his museum.
Today, roughly sixty polydactyl cats rule the entire grounds. You will find them lounging across Papa's mahogany writing desk, napping on the wide porch rails, and sprawling across the manicured garden paths with absolute authority. Seeing a cat stretch its paws to reveal extra digits is both charming and delightfully surreal.
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Life happens
The entire feline dynasty began back in the 1930s when a local sea captain named Stanley Dexter gave Hemingway a white, six-toed kitten named Snow White. Mariners traditionally valued polydactyl cats for good luck on long ocean voyages, believing their extra toes provided superior balance on rolling decks and made them fierce mousers. Snow White must have been popular because now her descendants keep watch over the historic property (they own the place).
While only about half of the current feline residents physically display extra toes, every single cat on the estate carries the polydactyl gene in its DNA. That means even a cat born with normal five-toed paws can parent a six-toed kitten. The museum staff proudly continues a fun tradition that Hemingway started nearly a century ago: naming every newborn cat after a famous historical figure or celebrity. You might spot Audrey Hepburn taking a lazy afternoon nap inside a garden flowerpot or Pablo Picasso soaking up the sunlight near the brick courtyard pool.
What makes visiting this property so special is the easygoing atmosphere. There are no restrictive velvet ropes keeping you away from the furry residents. They move freely between the cool historic rooms and the tropical gardens, perfectly content to share their private paradise with visitors. Sitting under the rustling palms while a relaxed, six-toed feline sprawls across your lap offers the kind of quiet travel magic you simply cannot plan in advance.
You can claim that you visited the museum out of respect for Hemingway’s writing, but we know the truth. It was to see the cats. It’s always the cats.
Key West is packed with fun and culture, but spending a calm afternoon among Hemingway’s famous caretakers is a must do. Unless you’re allergic to cats.
See you next Wednesday.
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