September 11, 2005

(not Hitch's actual feet)

Oh yeah, we got a cat. Well, a kitten actually. He's 2.8 pounds of grey and white fuzziness. His name is Hitch because of his thumbs. "Thumbs!?" you say. Yes, thumbs. Hitch is a polydactyl cat. He has an extra digit on each of his front paws. Polydactylism can manifest in many forms. Hitch's is shown by the addition of a large digit on the inside of each of his front paws, right outside of his "dew claw". When I say "large" I don't mean freakishly oversized. They're really about the same size as his other regular toes. He looks like he's wearin' mittens. Some of you may be familiar with "Hemingway" cats. That's Hitch. If you have no idea what I'm talkin' about, go here. Anyway, we just went to the vet today and found out that he has crystals and blood in his urine. So he's on a special cat food to eliminate the crystals and the blood they think is from some sort of trauma (self induced I assure you). We hope he gets better soon, though you couldn't really tell anything is wrong by looking at him or watching him chase his toys (and everything else) around the apartment. Our only sign was a few inappropriate pissing incidents and a bit of crying when he would use his litter box. We don't have any pictures yet, but as soon as a get my ever-growing pile of film developed I'll post some.