What was unusual about the many cats Hemingway kept at his home on Whitehead Street in Key West?
Hemingway acquired his original cat as a gift from a Sea Captain of a freighter from the middle east. The cat was from a species having six toes. It wasn’t long before all of Hemingway’s cats were six toed. The cats also had an unusual water trough. When Josie Russell decided to remodel the rest rooms in Sloppy Joe’s, he was going to throw out the men’s urinal. Hemingway took it home, inlaid it with Spanish tile. It can be seen today in the backyard of the Hemingway house in Key West, watering the descendents of Ernest’s cats. (63) Who was the “MICE?” In July of 1934, Arnold Samuelson, a young man in his early twenties presented himself at Hemingway’s front door. He stated he was there for three reasons: He would meet Ernest Hemingway; Hemingway would teach him how to write; and he would be a writer. Because of his straightforwardness, Hemingway signed him on as a night watchman and deckhand on Pilar in turn for “discussing” his writing with him. Samuelson played the violin and was pro
