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A few months ago, my young son rescued a kitten that has thumbs. I understand it's what's called a polydactyl cat, and it's the kind protected at the Ernest Hemingway House in Key West.
But besides the thumbs, his feet are big. HUGE. Like a bobcat's feet. I've never seen a cat with larger feet, and he's bigger than any cat I've ever had even though he's only around six months old now.
My question is: is foot size an indicator of mature size? Does his hefty feet mean he's going to be unusually large?
I mean, HOW BIG IS THIS CAT GOING TO GET?
He's a good guy. A pleasure to have around the house. And he gets along unusually well with our miniature rat terrier, Buddy; even though he took over the role of Head Pet when he first came into the house, and demoted Buddy to "the dog."
But he's bigger than Buddy now, and still obviously hasn't grown into his foot size; and we're wondering if he might get big enough to be a danger to Buddy when they get to playing. I don't think he'd intentionally hurt Buddy in any way, but he does like to play rough sometimes.
Anyone got any ideas, or ways to tell how big he might eventually get to be?
Congratulations on the rescue! I don't know what size a rat terrier is so can't judge how big your boy is. I don't think he will hurt your dog in play though, adult cats seem to know how rough or gentle they need to be. I know two polydactyl cats and they are both very sweet and loving to humans and other animals.
Do you have any backyard breeders around? Sounds like he might have been dumped from some low life Maine Coon breeding program. MCs do get pretty big. He'll stop growing in a year or two.
LOL... my little dumped rescue Charcoal has those Frankenstein feet... though he is not polydactyl. At 8 months now he's 8.8 lbs. He's growing longer, but not any taller. Sooner or later he'll grow into those feet of his.
Even if your new kitty hits 25 lbs... the dog will be fine. My former cats used to play with their chihuahua friends all the time. 20 lbs vs 3lbs.
I've never let any of my cats over the years play with any of the family rabbits though... Rabbit bones are too delicate.
^^Not to mention that rabbits are too much like breakfast! Although there most likely are many instances out there where rabbits and cats co-exist peacefully as house pets.
No doubt Buddy can hold his own, despite being demoted to merely "the dog". How does Buddy react when the cat gets rambunctious?
Our youngest cats are 2 years old. They torture each other and the other cats. But they tend to leave our 19 year old with CRF and HCM alone. They seem to know the magic line that the are not allowed to cross!
Sounds like a Maine Coon mix. He could get to be about 20+ lbs.
I have a rat-jack terrier cross and my cat and dog play together all the time. They play pretty rough, but they don't hurt each other, just make a lot of noise.
I have seen normal size cats with polydactyl feet/paws. The paw size of your kitten does not mean he will become "FrankenKitty".
And most cats, play with other pets, but are not aggressive or mean--but do have him nuetered. Our dogs and cats play together and alternatively ignore each other, but no blood was ever drawn. Except when Mickey decided to give the "stupid dog" a quick paw across the nose, for trying to lick his bootie.
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Although there most likely are many instances out there where rabbits and cats co-exist peacefully as house pets. 
