Picture of a domestic cat showing webbed feet

This is a great picture showing us that the domestic cat has webbed feet. Of course, it is a Sphynx cat which is hairless, which in turn allows us to see their toes more clearly. And what is readily apparent is the enormous amount of webbing between the toes. It couldn't be more obvious. And there is nothing to suggest that the hairless cat have more webbing than non-hairless cats. This is what you might expect for any domestic cat. So why do domestic cats have webbed feet? There can only be one reason which is that they evolved to be able to swim at least reasonably adequately in order to survive in the water and prey for animals in and around water.

Photo of Sphynx cat with webbed feet typical of all domestic cats. Photo in public domain.

There are, as you might know, some wild cat species which spend a lot of their time in and around water. One of these is the aptly named fishing cat. Another is the flat-headed cat. They are both small cats. The wild cat ancestor of the domestic cat is the North African Wildcat and this cat normally lives in quite arid scrub land which is why they are bad drinkers but no doubt they encounter moments when they have to wade into the water and swim, and through evolution over millennia, they ended up with webbed feet. That is the theory, those are my thoughts and they are based upon common sense.