Reader Taskin has a friend with a new kitten, one that has extra toes. There are 24, to be exact—six more than the normal number of 18 (five on each front paw, four on the rear). The cat, located in Canada, was obtained from the Humane Society, as it had been abandoned in an apartment building.
It has been tentatively named “Toad” by the youngest member of the staff, but you’re welcome to suggest alternative names below.
This little guy has six toes on each foot. First, a general view:
Polydactyly is due to a single dominant gene: if you have one copy, you have extra toes. Unlike polydactyly genes in some other species, having two copies is not lethal, though I don’t think it increases the number of toes.
Mittens!
Front feet:
Back feet:
Don’t think that this little guy is even close to the world record for cat toes, though. The official record is held by one Canadian moggie, Jake, who was certified by Guinness in 2002 as having 28 full toes, though I once posted about Bandit, a cat that supposedly had 29 toes.
Here’s an oldie but goodie from the Cheezburger site:
Oh my goodness. Did you say Mittens? I say that, too! And not just for kitties with extra toes.
Baby mittens 🙂
Digits
Digits 🙂
Digitereedoo
LOL
It should be named Sonic.
This should be explained. Sonic Hedgehog is the name of a multi-talented gene used in vertebrates. Among many things, it determines the number of toes.
A homeowbox gene.
Good one!
I never cease to marvel at the cleverness of the readers! Good one!
Homeowbox gene
+1
Are cats more likely to be polydactyl than other critters? Is there something about them?
I do not know. But the mutation is dominant and I think people sort of like to breed for it in cats.
Love those pics of the front feet and back feet. That’s one happy cat. As it should be.
Oh, and my name suggestion. Hmmm, with 6,6,6, and 6 toes, he’s clearly:
The Anticat.
🙂
Duoduodecimal?
b&
Cool, but kinda hard to call. Duo duo duoooooo. Yeah, maybe that works;-)
It’s not like that cat would answer!
It might come for treats.
you can always name it Antonio Alfonseca (or some nicknamed form of that) in honor of the MLB relief pitcher with polydactyly!
I was also thinking baseball, but I prefer Rollie, as in Rollie Fingers.
http://www.rfingers34.com/
Polly!
+1
My thought!
/@
Ripley!
(What a darling kitteh!)
Ripley was the woman. Jones was the cat….
b&
Ripley the character just makes this a unisexual name now. 🙂
Ripley’s believe it or not?!
That works too!
Toe Tom Potent.
Toezer
Toezer the Toezerian
Toezan
LOVE the toe truck;-)
Toze?
Gordon
If they want to stick to Toad, just change the spelling to Toed.
That would work beautifully!
Yep.
Toedally!
You forgot the “like” before toedally😊
Crap. Revoke my hip card.
🐸
Lol!
Back in the 1960s, the Stanford University campus used to be replete with polydactylous cats. My recollection is that they descended from someone’s research and escaped, but I could be wrong as it’s been some decades since I was a student there.
I think one of them showed up at our house on Ramona Street in ’68. We called him Clubfoot ( not very kindly, I suppose.). Had him for about a year along with two other kitties and then found a home for him when I went to Europe, then Berkeley.
Back in the 1960s, the Stanford University campus was replete with polydactylous cats. My recollection is that they were left over from a research project, but I may be wrong as it’s been decades since I was a student there.
Six of One.
…or Half a Dozen of the Other….
b&
I’m going to be accused of being one sick puppy for suggesting this, but when I first saw the challenge of naming the ‘polydactylous’ cat, my brain came up with ‘many-paws-al’. Oh well…
“Al” for short?
Many Paws Al – purrrfect!
He’s a really sweet cat! According to Wikipedia, it’s unusual for a cat to have all four feet polydactyl.
My suggestion for a name, Saul of Tarsals. 🙂
Or Meta Tarsals?
Good one! 😀
LOL
No,those are the bones leading up to the digits. The bones in the digits are phalanges. (Singular: phalanx.) On the other hand, perhaps an xray would show additional metatarsals… maybe…
You’re right and Phalanges wouldn’t be a great kitteh name…
Unless, maybe, just Phil for short.
Here, Philly philly philly;-)
People would think you had a horse.
😉 or wanted some cream cheese…
No, that would be, “Schmear, Philly, Philly, Philly.”
But only if you also had a certain type of hound to go with it….
b&
When you have a beagle, you definitely need good locks.
Yes; that’s that’s a key requirement.
b&
You’re on a ROLL, Girl💐
But Pha-lynx OTOH…
another purrfect one!!
“On the other hand…”
Hahahahahaha!
😉
“According to Wikipedia, it’s unusual for a cat to have all four feet polydactyl.”
Odd. All the polydactylous cats I have known have had all four feet enhanced. My own pet cat Soufflé, a tortoiseshell short-hair, was one.
I’d suggest Dexter. Our polydactyl was very dexterous, and she seemed to be of the opinion that if she were a bit taller she wouldn’t need humans and their opposable thumbs.
I was thinking Dax, short for polydactyl — dac — lots of dac — Dax.
Digit!
24th Amendment? The 24th Amendment prohibits a tax on voting. The tax was used in Southern states so that mostly white people voted.
Tesseract? 24 is the number of 2-dimensional faces on a tesseract. That’s kinda cool.
Chromium? 24 is the atomic number.
Carat. 24 is the number of carats for pure gold.
Twinkle Toes!
Ichthyostega?
Tiktaalik would be better, but it had fins, not toes.
This gene is dominant in humans as well, though rare. Dominant CAN be rare! But anyhow, I heard in college the last time (early 1990s) about how there was a study of this town in Italy (I think) where there were a number of polydactylous children. It turned out that there was this one polyamorous polydactylous man, and he just got around!
It’s been years since I was a college student but a few tasteless bad puns bubbled up from that part of my brain as soon as I read that.
There once was a polyamorous polydactyl
Who was more than inordinately tactile
……..
I leave the rest to another reader
( it can perhaps end with “projectile”?)
Though many a man, polyamourous
Finds catting around pretty glamorous
If you would be tactful
Don’t be polydactyl
Or paternity suits will be clamorous
Clever!
Poifect!!!
Impressive!
Ha, good one!
Sassy, short for Sasquatch.
Suggestions:
Orteils Mitaines
Mitten Toes
Orteils-Mutaines McKitten
A Franco-Scottish feline
Bravo! Mitten clapping and whistle-toes!
And other delighted nonsense 🙂
McKitten!
Loving the i–> u change, too. Reference to mutation? And if unintended, that’s pretty great, too.
Wish I could take credit for the i->u mutation, but I was just tired late last night. It is kinda cool, though, if I may say so meself;-)
Sixes
Toto
I was thinking “toad? – toads don’t have six toes on each foot do they?”. It’s all right – I’ve had a coffee now.
Not sure about 24 toes, but a 28-toed cat would of course be Purrfect.
Oddly, no one has suggested Ernest / Ernesta / Ernestina, depending on gender and taste for Classics abuse.
Or is my memory wrong telling me that Ernest Hemmingway had an inordinate fondness for polydactyl cats?
Seems good enough for me.
Paddle-Paws.
I knew a couple who had a white polydactyl cat: they named it, “Snowplow”.
Oh, that’s cute!