Our sincerest apologies to his owners’ furniture.
A Maine coon kitten named Erebus Anomaly has broken a 24-year-old Guinness World Record for the most toes on a cat, presumably setting off a lot of Google alerts for Quentin Tarantino.
Kendra Vanden Bloomer and Hunter Nett/Blue Northern Maine Coons
The cat from Kaukauna, Wisconsin, has eight toes on one paw and seven on all the others, giving him a total of 29 toes. Erebus beat the previous record-holder, a 28-toed Canadian cat named Jake who had held the record since 2002, by just one little piggy.
Although Erebus earned the honor in May, his achievement received wider recognition after ABC News aired a segment about the tiny champion over the weekend.
The network reports that Erebus’ dad has six toes on each paw, totaling 24, meaning he gave his offspring a toe up in the quest to break the decades-long record. Cats normally have 18 furry digits, ABC News noted.
Kendra Vanden Bloomer and Hunter Nett/Blue Northern Maine Coons
Erebus’ extra toes are due to a genetic trait called polydactyly. The condition is relatively common in Maine coons, according to a 2016 article in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.
Erebus’ reign of exceptionalism was almost cut short, ABC News reported. A few months after he was born on March 31, he came down with pneumonia and experienced an aspiration event, and he had to spend time in an oxygen machine. His owners, Kendra Vandenbloomer and Hunter Nett, reflected on this rough period in their cat’s life on his Facebook page.
“After bringing him home, we kept him separated in his own little area, watched him closely and kept our fingers crossed,” a recent post reads. “There were days when I truly didn’t think he was going to make it.”
Once little Erebus’ medication ran out, Vandenbloomer and Nett brought him back to the vet for another checkup, and X-rays revealed that his little lungs had improved — and with continued medication, he eventually made a full recovery. During the same vet visit, however, Erebus got a few additional X-rays.
“While we were there, they also took X-rays of all four of his paws. Those X-rays were the final thing I needed to complete and submit his Guinness World Records application,” the same Facebook post reads. “It’s crazy to think that one of the scariest times in his life led right into the beginning of his world-record journey.”