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The therapist's cats are polydactyl. Frank's cat looks like it might be polydactyl (we're waiting for confirmation).

When asked about polydactyls, the Cheshire Cat responded that they are more attractive than most cats. (Or something along those lines--pulling up the specific tweet is more work than I'm willing to put in right now.)

What's going on with polydactyl cats? How are they relevant to the cracks in the fourth wall?

Polydactyl cats?

Those are cats with extra fingers or digits on their paws.

Hmmm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyly

They sure are not that common. I've had cats all my life and never once found a Polydactyl within physical reach... That all the cats appearing in the ARG just happen to be Polydactyl is stretching the laws of probability.

First: stop panicking, we didn't get a confirmation about Shelly yet.
Second: I have no idea what, but something really is afoot. But I have absolutely no evidence to speculate upon.
Third: they are uncommon, but not THAT uncommon.

Pixelmage wrote:They sure are not that common. I've had cats all my life and never once found a Polydactyl within physical reach... That all the cats appearing in the ARG just happen to be Polydactyl is stretching the laws of probability.

I think I've met two polydactyls in my lifetime. They certainly are not common. Of course, we have a very small sample size here, and the statistician in me says we can't make any useful judgments based on the available data, but the Troper in me knows that a detail like this has to be relevant. Unless it's a Red Herring.

I tweeted the Cat about Adam's new pet. I hope that was okay. I didn't see anyone else do it. He may be able to confirm if it's polydactyl, and whether she has any significance towards anything.

I'm wondering at this point if Joan's two cats, and Shelley MAY be from the same litter of kittens. It seems Polydactyl feet are a genetic mutation in cats, and breeding two of them yogether is more likely to result in polydactyl offspring, so both their parents may well have been Polydactyl too...

I'm not sure what that would hold for the future but certainly something ...

Well Joan's cats kind of make sense. They're in Boston, right? From the wiki page: Two specific breeds recognized by some but not all cat fancier clubs are the American Polydactyl and Maine Coon Polydactyl, and named regional populations include the Boston thumb cat, Cardi-cat, Ithacat, and Vermont snowshoe cat.

EdwardTheAwesome wrote:Well Joan's cats kind of make sense. They're in Boston, right? From the wiki page: Two specific breeds recognized by some but not all cat fancier clubs are the American Polydactyl and Maine Coon Polydactyl, and named regional populations include the Boston thumb cat, Cardi-cat, Ithacat, and Vermont snowshoe cat.

*Nod* Also the Hemmingway cat, apparantly he had one, along with the fifty others at his house... It'd be fitting for a writer's cats to be involved in all this in some way.

Scarab wrote:

EdwardTheAwesome wrote:Well Joan's cats kind of make sense. They're in Boston, right? From the wiki page: Two specific breeds recognized by some but not all cat fancier clubs are the American Polydactyl and Maine Coon Polydactyl, and named regional populations include the Boston thumb cat, Cardi-cat, Ithacat, and Vermont snowshoe cat.

*Nod* Also the Hemmingway cat, apparantly he had one, along with the fifty others at his house... It'd be fitting for a writer's cats to be involved in all this in some way.

Ew, he had 50 cats? Why do we make such a big deal about crazy cat ladies when there's crazy cat dudes too? Seriously, there's no way to clean that many litterboxes without devoting yourself to the task full time...ew.

EdwardTheAwesome wrote:

Scarab wrote:

EdwardTheAwesome wrote:Well Joan's cats kind of make sense. They're in Boston, right? From the wiki page: Two specific breeds recognized by some but not all cat fancier clubs are the American Polydactyl and Maine Coon Polydactyl, and named regional populations include the Boston thumb cat, Cardi-cat, Ithacat, and Vermont snowshoe cat.

*Nod* Also the Hemmingway cat, apparantly he had one, along with the fifty others at his house... It'd be fitting for a writer's cats to be involved in all this in some way.

Ew, he had 50 cats? Why do we make such a big deal about crazy cat ladies when there's crazy cat dudes too? Seriously, there's no way to clean that many litterboxes without devoting yourself to the task full time...ew.

Heh, crazy cat writer dude, I don't think he had that many then. A lot, but not that many... Nowadays there are approximately sixty cats living at his former home, now the Hemingway Museum - and some of them are STILL polydactyl, possibly descendants of the original one he got from a ship's captain. I guess they must be a shelter too, or something...

Cheshire tweeted back. He doesn't seem to know if Shelley's polydactyl. Disappointing.

Not only is Shelly polydactyl, but so is Quixote's new cat, Queenclaw! The theory is that all polydactyl cats report to Metaneko.

No. My theory is that all polydactyl cats ARE Metaneko. He's actually a Hivemind.

Oh. That's much crazier.

Alternately, the GMs have noticed that we got paranoid about the cats being polydactyl, and are just trolling us at this point by making all the cats that are involved polydactyl.

Qara-Xuan Zenith wrote:No. My theory is that all polydactyl cats ARE Metaneko. He's actually a Hivemind.

Wait, but didn't Joan say that both of her cats are polydactyl? Metaneko can bilocate?! At what point does he become the true mastermind behind this whole scenario?

Wasn't he always?

WMG: Metaneko broke the Wall, fragmenting himself into numerous polydactyl cats in the process.

Note: NONE of my Metaneko WMGs are meant to be taken seriously.

WMG: Qara's account is currently in the control of another polydactyl cat, trying to throw us off the trail.

THE CONSPIRACY IS EVERYWHERE

WMG: Every time a Metaguard types the word 'polydactyl', 'cat', or Metaneko, he/she gets incorporated into the Metaneko Hivemind.

I can keep this up all day. I have ENDLESS supplies of paranoia fuel.

WMG: we are all cats. and no one can tell if you're a cat on the internet. :3

WMG: Metaneko is the only one who ISN'T a cat. That's why he gets to be the Cat.

WMG: Metaneko is actually a human in a cat suit,

WMG: this is off topic.

Oh wait, that's not a guess at all. IT IS OFF TOPIC! 8D