Talk:Polydactyl cat

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Contents 1 Blurb for DYK 2 Double paw cats 3 "ancient trait" 4 Better Image 5 Question from newbie 6 Why!? 7 Up to eight toes? 8 Photos, photos, photos! 9 Article Cleanup Underway

[edit] Blurb for DYK

Did You Know

• ...that polydactyl cats, with extra toes as a genetic trait, were long considered good luck by many sailors, where their extraordinary climbing and hunting skills were helpful in controlling skipboard rodents?

[edit] Double paw cats

I once met a cat with double paws. How is this related to feline polydactyly? Would this merit a separate article, or a section in this article? --B.d.mills 00:12, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

It might be an extreame case of polydactylism. One of my girlfriends had a cat named Chernobyl, because he had 8 toes per paw. It looked like he had double paws, but this was not the case, just DOUBLE-SIZED ones.--R.D.H. (Ghost In The Machine) 06:15, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "ancient trait"

I've removed "Polydactyly is an ancient trait": whether it was a reference to discredited atavism or a covert reminder of Devonian Acanthostegia, it conveyed little useful information. Perhaps it could be returned in a better form. The "opposable thumb" and reported dexterity of polydactyl cats might be cautiously looked into and expanded. They weren't employed in sewing patches on sails, one supposes, nor opening hard-to-manage cellophane packets of seabiscuit... --Wetman 00:20, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

I can vouch for that firsthand, actually. My wife's polydactyl cat could pick up pencils with his front paws. Never saw him write with them, though... - Scooter 04:19, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

Is it, just me, or is the, last sentence 'When Hemingway died in 1961 ...' confusing, with too many, commas?

You are right. I reworked it for grammar. "When Hemingway died in 1961, as provided in his will, his former home in Key West, Florida became a museum and currently houses approximately sixty descendants of his cats (about half of which are polydactyl)." Thanks. Vaoverland 09:48, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Better Image

IMO this article needs a better image representing this trait. In the picture of the cat, its toes can hardly be seen. --malber 19:21, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

It does, and of the three images, the first was clearly just "look at my cat" rather than any kind of demonstration of polydactyl digits (in fact, even at full resolution I could not make out if this was a polydactyl cat or not). Thus I cut the page down to two images. I searched the U.S. Govt sites via Google, but didn't find any useful images. Anyone who has such a cat, please take a decent, well-lit picture of its paws. We don't need to know its name, or where it lives, we just need a good example (from top and bottom, preferably) of the paw structure. -Harmil 18:39, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

• I tried putting his paws on the scanner before, but I couldn't get him to stand still :) — ₀₉₁₈^BRIAN • 2006-02-3 19:04
• I'll try to get a better photo, but for now, I think the cat-on-pillow photo works, because it shows both the thumb digit, and the hind dew claw. — ₀₉₁₈^BRIAN • 2006-02-3 21:05

The current picture doesn't seem to show polydactyly, simply an enlarged hallux (or possibly a totally normal paw). Cats always have five toes on the front paws, they just might or might not be able to flex that thumb in a 'thumby' way. Wait, is that a hind paw? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.122.208.51 (talk) 16:25, 10 January 2007 (UTC).

I'm pretty sure the opposable thumb is unique to polydactyl cats; in between his thumb and index digit was a claw coming out of nowhere--that's apparently where the 6th digit was supposed to be. — BRIAN0918 • 2007-01-10 19:34Z

[edit] Question from newbie

Can you redirect to this page from the search for "Hemmingway Cat"?

At first it was the only term I knew and may be for others.

[edit] Why!?

Why is there an article about polydactyl cats? Is there an article about polidactilia for every animal??

• Polydactyl cats had a special role in multiple aspects of history (I'm assuming you've read the article and other content you can find on Google), unlike most or all other polydactyl creatures. — BRIAN0918 • 2006-10-09 19:19Z

[edit] Up to eight toes?

I once saw an orange tabby polydactyl cat (named Snowshoe) that had eight toes. Is this enough evidence to up the number of possible toes? --Dblomgren 06:09, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

• We would need a reliable source for this number of toes. — BRIAN0918 • 2006-12-26 17:11Z

I've seen a few cases (with pictures) of at least three cats with 18 to 24 toes on each front paw. That many toes comprised almost 270 degrees of a circle. I'll try to find the links... Kel - Ex-web.god 21:25, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photos, photos, photos!

Both the number and placement of all the photos on this page is really getting out of hand! I've created a proper gallery, into which we could move the three male cat photos, where they could join the three female cat photos. The Hemingway cat photo strikes me as the one that should be used predominately in this entry. Its technical and compositional quality and the clarity of the cat's polydactyly make it a clear choice for me. Your thoughts? --Martinship 07:28, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Although I'm perhaps biased since I took the photo. - Marc Averette 18:59, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article Cleanup Underway

I've been bold and started to clean up the article:

• As previously discussed, all but one photo has been removed from the article text and added to an image gallery.
• The article's paragraphs and sentence structure have been rearranged.
• The article now has two text sections in addition to the catchall introductory section.

I hate the dreaded cleanup tag, so there isn't one, but this article still needs more work. I'm done for today, but I might revisit this article in the future. Please revert with care, but feel free to modify my changes. Thanks for your help! --Martinship 07:37, 6 March 2007 (UTC)