Jaunted - Tag: Ernest Hemingway

Key West: Key West Spring Break Part 2: Yes, the Cats Really Have Six Toes

Victor Ozols — 2009-04-25T14:44:52-05:00

Of the few cultured things we did in Key West, the best was our visit to the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum on Whitehead Street. Hemingway lived in the handsome colonial mansion from 1931 to 1939, penning some of his greatest works from a detached study. An animated and somewhat prickly tour guide took us through the rooms and explained how Hemingway's wife Pauline had all the ceiling fans removed for aesthetic purposes, and spent extravagantly on installing one of the island's first in-ground swimming pools, prompting Ernest to surrender to her his "last penny."

As for Hemingway's famous cats, their descendants are still there roaming around and getting underfoot, and they do indeed have six and sometimes seven toes. It makes them look like they're wearing little catcher's mitts on their hands.

Hemingway Cats Can Stay, But Roam Free No Longer

Victor Ozols — 2008-09-28T11:35:03-05:00

The fate of Ernest Hemingway's cats has finally been decided. The fifty or so descendants of Snowball - who was given to Hemingway in 1935 - will be allowed to remain at the late writer's Key West home, provided they never stray from the property. The cats - some of which have six toes - have been a fixture of the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum for years, but Florida authorities had recently threatened to remove them from the property, claiming the museum didn't keep the animals properly contained (they were free to leave the grounds if they felt like it) and lacked an animal welfare license.

The recent agreement between the parties comes as a relief to the many tourists who pass through the verdant gardens and Spanish colonial house where Hemingway wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "To Have and Have Not." To some, the furry critters represent a living legacy of the writer, and the threat of eviction seemed like another tin-eared move from by-the-book bureaucrats who wanted to spoil the fun for nothing. Still, we can't help but wonder why it took five years of negotiations for the museum to install a fence around the perimeter. It seems like the obvious thing to do. Fortunately for the cats, an independent animal behaviorist came to the same conclusion.

[Photo: AP/Florida Keys News Bureau]

Related Stories:
· Purr-fect Ending to Battle Over Hemingway's Cats [AP via Yahoo! News]
· The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum [Official Site]
· Florida Catfight! State, Museum Do Battle [Jaunted]

Key West: Florida Catfight! State, Museum Do Battle

egw — 2007-07-17T16:08:57-05:00

Writer Ernest Hemingway spent many happy years holed up in his Key West house, translating his experiences on safari and at war to print. After his suicide in 1961, his two-story bungalow became a pilgrimage spot for all of Jake Barnes' friends the world over -- and a refuge for the descendants of his six-toed cat, Snowball. But if the Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has its way, Snowball's relatives are about to get the boot.

Curators of the museum promise the Hemingway cats are well fed and happy, but according to the state of Florida the site doesn't properly contain the animals, nor does it have an Animal Welfare license. Can visitors still "enjoy the whimsy" of animals that just can't be caged? It's times like this that we ask ourselves: What Would Papa Do?

[Photo: ll_rae_ll]

Related Stories:
· Hemingway Stayed Here [Hotelchatter]
· Key West Coverage [Jaunted]