A Maine coon kitten from Wisconsin overcame a perilous bout with pneumonia to break a 24-year-old world record for most toes on a cat, setting the new mark at 29.
Erebus Anomaly’s unique story received US national media attention on Monday, when ABC’s World News Now program recounted what one of his owners called a “miraculous” recovery from illness in his infancy – and the subsequent Guinness World Record that he clinched.
Erebus’s unprecedented wealth of toes is evidently attributed to a genetic trait, polydactyly, that causes some cats to be born with extra phalanges and – according to a 2016 article in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery – is relatively common in Maine coons.
Furthermore, Erebus’s biological father was born with six toes on each paw, giving him a total of 24, which is six more than the normal amount for a cat, as World News Now reported. That helped set the stage for Erebus to be born in March with eight toes on one paw and seven on the rest.
Erebus, in other words, had a total of one more toe than the Guinness World Record-setting 28 counted on a Canadian pet named Jake in 2002 – and then tied in March by the Michigan kitten Toby.
And Erebus’s owners, Kendra Vandenbloomer and Hunter Nett of Kaukauna, Wisconsin, later told local news outlet WFRV it was quickly obvious to them that he might attain the record.
Yet Erebus, from the Appleton community of Kaukauna, had much more to navigate than just Guinness World Records’ verification process.
At one point, after noticing that their cat was breathing through his mouth, Vandenbloomer and Nett learned Erebus had suffered a potentially deadly medical emergency known as an aspiration event – when something that’s supposed to be in the stomach, such as food or liquid, gets into the airways.
He required a trip to an emergency veterinarian, which saw Erebus get diagnosed with pneumonia, be placed in an oxygen machine and undergo a course of medication.
Erebus’s outlook for a time was grim, Vandenbloomer and Nett said on World News Now.
Notably, Vandenbloomer said on the program that X-rays of his lungs were supposed to be black but were completely white.
He improved, though, in a turn of events that Vandenbloomer described as “definitely miraculous”. And X-rays ultimately confirmed Erebus had fully recovered.
Meanwhile, those X-rays also served a purpose beyond punctuating Erebus’s health scare. They were also important documentation for the application that Vandenbloomer and Nett submitted on his behalf for recognition by Guinness World Records.
The famous organization, which curates a database of more than 40,000 world records, then bestowed the title of most toes on a cat to Erebus on 13 May, according to the group’s website.
“It’s crazy to think that one of the scariest times in his life led right into the beginning of his world record journey,” read a message on a social media account created for Erebus by Vandenbloomer and Nett.
The pair run a breeding cattery named BlueNorthern Maine Coons, and they were asked by ABC’s Danny New whether Erebus might be rehomed.
“He’s staying with us,” Vandenbloomer said. “He’s a gorgeous boy.”
