Hemingway Cats Dodge Bullet

The six-toed cats that make Ernest Hemingway's Key West home a magnet for lovers of both literature and animals can stay right where they are, the city says. The feds have targeted the literary lions, saying they're "on exhibit," but the local government passed an ordinance last week designating them "animals of historic, social and tourism significance."

Some four dozen felines roam the property—a problem for the USDA, which insists they belong in cages. The four-year tussle began when an animal activist dropped a dime on the house, which is now a museum. "It's just insanity the time and money that has been spent on this," a lawyer for the home tells the Miami Herald. (More Florida stories.)