This is Karl Frederick Ivan.  Karl is a Key West Kitty.  He has six toes.  Not six total… but six on each foot.  Karl is a direct descendant from the great line of six-toed cats here on the island.  His great grand-daddy (about 40 generations back)….. was Ernest Hemingway’s first feline.  Also six toes.  (Not Hemingway, but the cat.)

Ernest’s cat was name Klyde Vincent Warren.  They went every where together.  Drank coffee together…. lapped it right out of the bowl.  When Hemingway wrote “The Old Man and the Sea”…. his six-toed cat Klyde was with him constantly.  The cat in the book, named “Kevin Harold Neil”, is supposed to be loosely based on Klyde’s furry life.  Well, actually, all nine of them.  Having six toes on each foot leads to a lot of personal injury accidents, and also to some crazy-go-nuts dancing moves.

At any rate, I asked Karl, the Key West Kitty I saw on Fleming Street today… for an autograph.  I explained to him that I had been to the Ernest Hemingway Museum, and blah, blah, blah.

It was obvious that Karl was all hopped up on Kitty-Katnip. You could smell it on his breathe.  He wanted two bags for an autograph.  I didn’t do it.   Catnip abuse is a growing problem in our nation, especially with Celebrity Cats. It really needs to be brought into the realm of public awareness. Remember, only YOU can talk to your cat about catnip.

This is your cat’s brain on drugs:   I LOVE you. Humans are awesome, but dogs RULE!

Stop the madness.