Maine Coon Tootsie with Polydactyl Paws

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Got to show you a cat Maine Coon cat that is becoming more and more famous as the months go by.

Her name is Tootsie and she lives with Valley Girl. Valley Girl is a professor and lecturer. She has her own website that is part of the PoC sites.

She adopted Tootsie from a cat rescue center. She is purebred and she is polydactyl.

Maine Coons have a habit of being polyactyl cats, which as you probably know means that she has more than the usual number of toes on her paws.

The reason for this has been said to be because the immigrant cats that accompanied the pilgrims from England in the early 1600s, were ships cats and ships cats were often polydactyl.

They were considered good luck and thought to be better on deck because of the extra toes - more stable.

They were also thought to have been better hunters. The way Tootsie is using her paws to grab objects bears this out. Read some more about Tootsie.

Ships cats that were polydactyl would also have landed at Florida and Key West. Ernest Hemingway's house (now a museum) was home to many polydactyl cats that are still there and the most famous polydactyl cats in the world. They are not all Maine Coons. Are there any Maine Coons amongst them? I have forgotten.

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