We first told you about the federal government’s interference with Ernest Hemingway‘s cats last summer, and city officials in Key West, where roughly 50 cats have the run of the dead author’s estate, have now taken decisive action in support of the literary felines. In response to claims by the Department of Agriculture that the Hemingway House needs a federal license to “exhibit” the cats, the Key West City Commission gave the house an exemption from restrictions on multiple cat ownership, describing the cats, many of whom have extra digits on their paws, as “animals of historic, social and tourism significance,” as well as “an integral part of the history and ambiance of the Hemingway House.” (File photo of Patches courtesy of the Associated Press, which has been all over this story from the beginning.)
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