If Cats Had Thumbs Day
Last Updated on May 7, 2021 by Holly Anne Dustin
What would your cat do if cats had thumbs?
Open the cabinet where I keep the treats is the first thing that comes to mind. Midnight broke in once but we fixed the handle. With thumbs though, anything is fair game.
If cats had thumbs they could open their own cans for dinner. So they’d probably eat all the time. Or do you think Kitty would learn cooking skills and make his own food?
Would your cat get a job? Help out with chores? Caramel can run a Roomba already, imagine what she could do with thumbs?
Maybe they’d steal our phones and text all their friends or download cat apps. Or go shopping online. Can you imagine all the money they’d drop on cat toys?
Plush would love it if he could work the remote. He’d never miss Diners, Drive-thrus, and Dives again. (Seriously, now that Northwoods Law is cancelled triple D is his favorite show. And yes, he really watches.)
What I bet you they wouldn’t do is clean their own litter box!
Polydactyl Cats
Of course, to do all those exciting things you really need opposable thumbs. Even “mitten cats” that appear to have thumbs don’t have opposable thumbs. Which is probably good for us or they might really take over the world!
A typical cat has 18 claws. 5 on each front paw and 4 on the back paws. A polydactyl cat has extras. Two of my Mayhem Girls have the typical one extra on each paw. Their dad had two extra front and one extra on the rear. I have a grooming client that has 7 front and 5 back – plus a weird floating digit that doesn’t have full bones. The cat that holds the Guinness World Record for claws has 28. How would you like to keep those claws clipped?
As long as you keep on top of the nail trimming, the polydactyl mutation has no downside for Kitty. It actually gives him better balance and an advantage when it comes to catching mice. Even your house panther needs to let his hunting instinct shine. Your furbaby’s bonus claws might make him harder on his toys. He’ll need a really sturdy scratching post to work out all those extra claws. I can tell you that polydactyl cats are awesome climbers.
Polydactyl cats are also known as Hemingway cats. Writer Ernest Hemingway loved his polydactyl cats. There is still a colony of polydactyl cats living at his property on Key West. The first cat was a gift from a ship captain friend of Hemingway’s. Polydactyl cats were often used as ship cats, or “Gypsy Cats”, because of their better balance.
Polydactylism can occur in any breed of cat and in random bred cats. It is most common in Maine Coons. In the show world, TICA recognizes polydactylism in Maine Coons and PixieBobs. It isn’t recognized in CFA anywhere but the household pet class.
So what would your cat do if he really had thumbs? Take over the world? Or just the refrigerator? What would you do if your cat had thumbs he could use?
