Lucky 'Twinkle Toes'

Little Chic has owned a cat for about two years. It was her dream from the time she was about two years old until she was six when 'Bobcat' arrived at our house. The thing is, John barely toelrates the kitty. He really hates cat fur. I, on the other hand, totally and absolutely uh-dore this animal and I keep trying to 'steal' her away from Little Chic. I think the cat acts hilarious, I think she is beautiful and I think she provides more entertainment than about any other living creature residing in our household. She's actually not really that affectionate, which for some reason, is part of her appeal to me. She is pleasant enough, but in typical cat-like fashion, she chooses if and when she allows you to dote on her. If you even pretend that you are going to get close enough to pet her, she scampers away until she is good and ready to be fondled. As a result, I am on a daily mission to chase her around the house trying to convince her to be my lap cat. It hasn't worked so far.

The odd thing about this cat turns out to be a pretty common anomaly...she has too many toes on her paws. Apparently when cats get inbred too much, they often come out with a few too many digits. However, the old wives tale version of this oddity is that extra toes mean the cat is lucky. Since I'm so enamored with this creature, her oversized paws just make her all the more adorable to me. I've even put up with her chewing all the drawstrings off every pair of workout shorts and pants that I own....I guess I figure the luck rubs off on my workout clothes and I'll get better results.

This extra-digit phenomenon can occur with humans as well. Before I had children, I just thought this was the wild imagination of some goofy teenager trying to poke fun at some unfortuate kid at school. However since having children of my own, I've actually known three different families to have children with an extra digit of one limb or another--one was an extra toe, one was an extra pinky and one was an extra thumb. I've only actually seen the child with the extra thumb, but in all three cases the extra part was removed in the first few months of life with no residual to show for it.

At this point, I am evaluating the part of the story that says it's lucky. I've been watching my own household as well as the houses of those that had the human children with the same condition. So far, the results are looking pretty good. But until I can say for sure about the luck thing, I'm just noticing the extra-loud tapping that occurs when those extra claws hit the floor, and so for now, I call her 'Twinkle Toes'.