Paws the polydactyl certainly has had a very interesting turnaround in her life. She was actually born as a stray at a maple syrup farm in Minnesota, but she is now the co-holder of a Guinness World Record for having the most digits as a feline and finds herself in a loving home. She’ll have to share her number one spot for “Most Toes On Cat” with another cat named Jake, who lives in Canada.

This furry feline has no less than 28 paws in total, and it’s definitely a unique sight to behold.

She has one extra digit on her two back paws, but her forepaws all have eight digits, making for 28 in total. Her fellow world record holder Jake has different paws, seven toes on each of them. It’s actually extremely rare that polydactyly occurs on all of a cat’s paws. Jake and Paws definitely are two very unique felines!

According to Paws’ owner, Jeanne Martin, the genetic condition which causes the extra toes actually comes in quite handy for her cat. It allows Paws to have a much firmer grip on surfaces, especially narrower ones. Most cats with more toes also have a batter balance. It’s probably a good idea to get a scratching board though, as they’ll definitely want to scratch those extra toes once in a while.

“It almost looks like a catcher’s mitt,” she said in a video report of CBS News.

As we’ve mentioned before, Paws’ life definitely hasn’t been easy, although she’s surrounded by nothing but love and attention now at Jeanne’s home. The woman’s son-in-law, Walter Nachtigall, was actually the one who found and rescued the poor kitten on the maple syrup farm.

“She used to love it when I would have her sit on my lap and rub her belly and she felt pretty safe, so eventually when she had kittens, she brought them back to my farm and stashed them in the Studebaker truck I was working on,” Walter said.

Paws has regular trips to the vet for nail trims, but luckily, they don’t charge extra.

“I told them once, I said, ‘you really ought to charge me extra because she has so many more,'” Jeanne told.

She’ll definitely make sure that all 28 of her claws are taken care of.

Did you know that polydactyl cats are actually known as “Hemingway cats”, in honor of the famous writer?

That’s right, the genetic trait is pretty much linked with Ernest Hemingway, and the reason is actually quite simple. The author was once the owner of a beautiful white polydactyl cat himself, who listened to the name Snowball. The cat was a gift from a ship captain in Florida.

Hemingway later became quite obsessed with polydactyl cats, and actually ended up taking care of more than two dozen multi-toed felines. It’s certainly not hard to understand why cats with more toes than usual are now more commonly known as Hemingway cats.

Thankfully, polydactyly is usually harmless, although it can require a bit of extra attention.

The reason why Jeanne makes sure that all of the digits are trimmed is that the extra toes can cause additional discomfort when walking or jumping around. The genetic condition also applies to pretty much any breed of cat. Interestingly, it’s also more common in specific regions.

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Source: CBS Minnesota, The Spruce Pets