Well, I have some cat stuff for you. The first is a doozy: the world’s most polydactylous cat: a Maine Coon with 29—count them—29 toes. That’s 11 more than the normal number of 18, with 5 toes on each front paw (including the dewclaw) and four on each rear foot. Click the screenshot to read the article from Parade Pets:
An excerpt:
This ridiculously fluffy gray Maine Coon kitten has so many extra toes that his family literally started counting them because they suspected they might have a Guinness World Record holder living in their house. They were right. Erebus officially holds the Guinness World Record for the most toes on a cat, and I don’t even want to imagine how long it takes to trim all those tiny claws.
The adorable video was shared by TikTok user @kendraschultz81 and features Erebus proudly showing off his impressively oversized paws.
According to WFRV Local 5, Erebus was born with 29 toes. His family, Kendra and Hunter of Blue Northern Maine Coons, realized almost immediately that they might have something extraordinary on their hands and carefully counted every single toe. After completing Guinness World Records’ verification process, Erebus officially became the new world record holder for the most toes on a cat.
Polydactyly is a naturally occurring genetic trait that causes cats to be born with extra toes. While it can occur in many breeds, it’s especially common in Maine Coons, where the extra toes are thought to have helped their ancestors walk more easily through snow and rough terrain.
Most polydactyl cats have one or two extra toes on some of their paws, but Erebus takes things to an entirely different level with an astonishing 29 toes.
The condition isn’t usually painful, and many polydactyl cats live completely normal, healthy lives. In fact, many pet parents think the oversized paws make them even more adorable.
. . . aaaand, here’s a video report on Erebus. Look at the size of these feet! At first he had lung problems, and wasn’t expect to survive, but the feisty moggy survived.
Here’s the Tik Tok video that brought Erebus fame:
@kendraschultz81
Guinness hasn’t yet updated its record, as it still reports, at the link below, two cats who tied with a 28-toe count, but Erebus has one more:
A quote:
An adorable 10-month-old kitten named Toby Henderson (USA) has tied a longstanding Guinness World Records title for the most toes on a cat, after equalling Jake the Polydactyl Cat’s (Canada) 2002 total of 28 claw-some digits.
Toby, who belongs to Delaney Henderson, recently found his forever home in Lansing, Michigan, and was made Officially Amazing on 12 May 2025. He lives alongside his loving parents and sister Connie, another polydactyl cat who has two extra toes on her front paws.
Here are two photos of Toby’s feet, but remember that Erebus beat him by a toe:
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Now here’s a clickbait headline from the Washington Post that will lure cat-lovers (click to read, or see it archived here). A tuxedo kitten was first stolen from a pet store, and then somehow used in a bank robbery:
An excerpt:
Stullich hurried to the scene, where she wondered why six police cars were there for a stolen cat. She soon learned the kitten’s morning was more harrowingthan she had feared.
After grabbing the kitten, the thief walked into a PNC Bank near the pet store, approached a teller window while still holding the cat and passed anote that read, “This is a Robbery,” according to court documents.
Prince George’s County police said they arrived on the scene and arrested the man.
A few minutes after getting there, Stullich said she was relieved when a police officer told her the cat was safe inside the bank.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” Stullich said. “Who would believe it?”
Stullich found the cat, named Magnolia, safe in a manager’s office. The kitten, now 5 months old, was unfazed, Stullich said.
. . .Stullich brought Magnolia back to the Pet Supplies Plus in Beltsville, where the kitten attracted a lot of attention — welcomed, this time — after her unwitting participation in a crime.
More than 20 people applied to adopt her. Most cats rescued by Beltsville Community Cats receive three applications if they’re lucky, Stullich said.
The rescue group decided the person who applied before the kitten’s brush with the law — Kaylei Roldan, 28 — should adopt Magnolia. For the past month, Magnolia has been enjoying a quiet life — with cuddles, chicken-flavored treats and a cat tree — at Roldan’s apartment in Laurel, Maryland.
The perp:
Court records identify the suspect as Jacob Loethen, 19, of Beltsville. He was charged with robbery, second-degree assault and theft of at least $100 but less than $1,500, according to court documents.
Court records show Loethen is represented by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, which declined to comment. Police did not disclose a possible motive.
And a good outcome (besides the rescue of Magnolia):
PNC Bank said it donated $150 to Beltsville Community Cats, the equivalent of the fee to adopt a kitten from the rescue group.
“The safety and security of our employees and customers — two and four-legged — is at the forefront of everything we do,” Christina Stowers, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an email to The Washington Post. “We’re pleased that this tale has a happy ending.”
That should be “tail”. I wonder how the kitten was “used”. Did the suspect thrust Magnolia at the teller and say, “Give me all your money. I have a kitten.”? And they didn’t even charge him with catnapping. . .
Here’s a short video showing photos of the lovely Magnolia.
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From “good.good.good.co,” we learn that Nebraskans had an unofficial State Cat named Cameron, who until recently haunted the grounds of the state Capitol Building in Lincoln. Now ailurophiles are capaigning to put a statue of Cameron on the Capitol grounds. Click below to read:
An excerpt:
The Nebraska State Capitol’s unofficial feline mascot could soon become a permanent fixture outside the historic building he brought warmth and love to for a decade.
Until this spring, Cameron the “Capitol Cat” made a home away from home at the Capitol near his downtown Lincoln residence with his owner, Dianna McGinnis. After long legislative days, staffers and lawmakers alike would greet Cameron, even on nights after heated filibusters or those that stretched toward midnight. Many found relief as he awaited their attention.
Cameron retired in May as the unofficial Capitol greeter when McGinnis moved to assisted living. But his pawprint on lawmakers, staff, and community members well beyond Nebraska could soon live on with a statue on the south side of the Capitol off Goodhue Boulevard.
The life-size bronze statue of Cameron would be about 18-20 inches tall and sit atop a pedestal made from Indiana limestone, about 28-32 inches in height. The limestone is proposed to mirror the stone facing and architectural trim of the historic Nebraska State Capitol.
“I mean, let’s be real, it would be so freaking cute and everybody would get their picture by it, and his little head would be petted, and it’d be shiny gold because everybody would rub his little head coming in,” state Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, who is helping the project, said Friday.
No state or taxpayer funds would go toward the statue.
Hughes, who joined the Legislature in 2023, and former state Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, who served between 2017 and 2025, will pitch the privately funded project to the Nebraska Capitol Environs Commission on Friday. The meeting is for feedback initially, and the supporters would need final approval before the statue could be affixed near the Capitol.
More:
Hughes said she first heard of the statue idea around the time lawmakers adjourned in April from one of her constituents, Scott Shafer, who works for the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. Using artificial intelligence, she created a rendering of how the statue could look. However, the final design would fall to the storied sculptor supporters hope to hire.
Benjamin Victor of Boise, Idaho, the artist behind the Ponca Chief Standing Bear and Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte statues on Lincoln Mall north of the Nebraska Capitol has agreed to sculpt the bronze Cameron.
. . .As of Tuesday afternoon, the fundraising campaign had raised almost $3,500 toward its $37,500 goal just a few days after launching. Shaw has also agreed to donate profits from his photo book about Cameron to the project through October.
The cost includes Victor’s estimate and ongoing maintenance. Meeting materials indicate minimal upkeep with materials “designed to withstand Nebraska seasonal cycles without degradation.”
While Shaw was not necessarily an animal photographer, he said he always enjoyed photographing Cameron. He has two adopted cats of his own — littermates, which his daughters named Toby, after “The Office” character, and Peanut, for a marking on his nose.
The article was published this week, and, sadly, the project appears to be in limbo, as this headling from Nebraska Public Media appeared yesterday. Click to read:
An excerpt from that:
Plans to memorialize Cameron the Capitol Cat’s years of service in the Nebraska Legislature are in limbo after the Nebraska Capitol Environs Commission expressed doubts about his ability to withstand the test of time.
Blockheads! Here’s their unconvincing explanation:
Landis said the statues included both in and around the Capitol building are placed there because of the significance of their lives and accomplishments. While many of the real people the statues commemorate and those who knew them have passed beyond living memory, Landis said they deserve to be remembered. The statues are placed on the environs to instruct the public about their lives.
“This is a well-loved cat,” Landis said. “But when the time runs out and those of you who loved this cat have passed by, what is the historical significance of the cat?”
Commission members one after the other voiced their agreement with Landis, saying that the cat cannot be seen as comparable to statues of important historical figures like Ponca tribal chief Standing Bear, who advocated for his tribe’s right to live on their own land and won against the U.S. Government.
Courtney Wittstruck, a public commenter, said Cameron’s significance was more than the love visiting fourth grade classes had for him. While intense debates were going on within the Capitol, Cameron greeted everyone, regardless of party or political view, the same, Wittstruck said.
“He became a small but meaningful symbol of the best of Nebraska: kindness, friendliness and compassion,” Wittstruck said, adding that a plaque should go with the statue to emphasize the symbolism. “It’s a reminder that we are all Nebraskans and that, at the end of the day, we have more in common than we have differences.”
See? Cameron exemplifies Nebraska’s kindness and friendliness. What more do these legislators need than that? Well, I hope they put the statue up somewhere near the Capitol building if it isn’t approved. In the meantime, here’s a video:
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Lagniappe:
Komatsu rescued! Fitted with a hard hat and put to work.
Click headline to read (from the UPI’s Odd News:
An excerpt:
A kitten rescued from inside an excavator has become the newest member of an Ohio construction crew, complete with her own vest and hard hat.
Chase Guello, operating supervisor with RiverReach Construction, was examining an excavator at a Leavittsburg job site when he found the tiny orange kitten inside the engine bay.
The crew was unable to locate the kitten’s mother or any siblings in the area.
The construction company named the cat Komatsu in honor of the brand of excavator, or Sue for short.
Sue spent two weeks in foster care before being placed with RiverReach’s shop mechanic, Jared, and his family.
“Once she’s of age, she’ll be traveling to and from work with him, and she’ll eventually become a shop cat under his supervision,” Guello told WJW-TV.
Meanwhile, video of Sue’s rescue went viral online, and came to the attention of officials at Komatsu.
The company sent RiverReach a tiny safety vest and hard hat for Sue.
Click on the screenshot below (and put the sound up) to see the Instagram post of Sue’s rescue:
You can see more photos of Sue and her work clothes at the River Reach Construction Instagram page.
Extra lagniappe: two cat tweets:
There is a food vending machine for cats in Turkey, the seagulls meow pretending to be cats pic.twitter.com/F0mhnqY2Pg
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) August 28, 2026
In Turkey, an elderly man who shines shoes for a living is visited each morning by a cat that comes for its daily brushing
— Wait That's Interesting (@waitinteresting.bsky.social) 2026-08-28T00:04:39.217Z
h/t: Norman, Debra, Matthew
Erebus has snowshoes!
Was bank robber Jacob Loethen, 19, of Beltsville, charged with theft of the cat? Apparently not. Was the cat charged as an accomplice?
Awesome that Lincoln, Nebraska will be getting a cat statue, but not-so-awesome that it won’t. Come on. Put up the statue, even if it’s just for the kids to enjoy! You’re no fun.
And Komatsu, of course, is the cutest kitty ever! I love how she just plopped out of the truck, as if she were reborn. Or, dare I say, born again?
Will they call the cat to court as a witness and victim? I can imagine the cat on the stand:
Prosecutor:”Is this the man that kitnapped you?”
cat looks around
Judge:”Please answer the question”
cat yawns
Judge:”Would the member of the jury please stop ‘pssst pssst’-ing at the witness”
cat claws the bar at the witness box several times
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.
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😝
Those polydactyl cats are pretty impressive. I never knew they could have that many toes. I think Hemingway’s cats in Key West were all polydactyl.
The thief’s mistake was to rob the bank after he stole the cat. If he’d robbed the bank first, he’d have been able to pay the adoption fee (which is kinda hefty, in my opinion). Also, holding a cat is such a unique identifier that he didn’t have a prayer of getting away. But then, he’s probably not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
TIL that cats only have four toes on their back paws. Somehow, despite having had many cats, I thought they had five.
Thanks for this week’s edition of cats in the news!
Indeed. Why would someone steal a cat and bring it to a bank robbery?
Sue and her works clothes, hilarious! My wife is named Sue and she’s from Ohio and she loves those pictures or her namesake.
There are different anomalies that cause polydactyly. Most are unknown to me, except for changes in signaling thru the rather famous Sonic Hedgehog pathway. This pathway does a LOT of different things in embryos of all animals, including invertebrates. In vertebrate limbs, Sonic Hedgehog protein (SHH) becomes a gradient signal across the developing foot, and this establishes positional information for activating different genes along the thumb-to-little finger axis. High levels of SHH protein specifies the little finger (digit #1), and lower levels specify the thumb (digit #5). Mutations or other perturbations (it doesn’t have to be mutations in DNA) can result in more than one SHH signaling center, setting up new arrays of digits. The sign for this is where polydactyly produces mirror imaged sets of digits. It looks like some of that is happening where there are complete or partially duplicated paws. Similar things happen in people because we too use SHH in much the same way.
I like the two Turkish videos—smart seagulls who imitate cats, and smart cat who has figured out the perfect place for a daily grooming appointment.
Thank you for a wonderful Caturday post–all interesting stories. I especially loved the Turkish man grooming the cat every day. The commission in Nebraska needs to get its priorities straight and for once do something a bit unusual since Cameron has obviously brought joy to many people.
Does having extra claws help them win fights?