Ernest Hemingway and Cats

When you hear of Hemingway and Key West, you immediately imagine a yardful of six-toed cats. But Key West was not the only town known for Hemingway cats. In Cuba, Ernest’s hilltop home, Finca Vigia [Lookout Farm], once had fifty-seven cats roaming its grounds. Among the many family letters describing his cats is one written in 1942. Ernest tells Hadley Mowrer that he had not been able to sleep the night before and had recalled a song they had composed for their cat, F. Puss, so many years earlier in Paris. It went like this, "A feather kitty’s talent lies In scratching out the other’s eyes. A feather kitty never dies Oh immortality." According to the letter, the Finca cats enjoyed Papa’s song. Hemingway's Cats: An Illustrated Biography by Carlene Fredericka Brennen, details Hemingway's love for cats. See the book's website. (via)