octopedal

Had an octopedal cat presented herself to Noah, that astute mariner would unquestionably have refused to give her permission to enter the ark, out of a sense of duty to his confiding mice and birds. Neither Noah nor Moses ever heard of a cat with eight feet, and hence the sudden production of such an animal in the nineteenth century is clearly a blow at the Mosaic theory of creation, and an effort to prove that the theory of development is true.

1877 April 16, “Hamiltonian Cats”, in The New-York Times, volume XXVI, number 7984, New York, N.Y., →OCLC, page 4, column 6

There was a spider, however, in the room, which, entranced by the melodious strains, grew more and more familiar, until at length it would climb upon the mobile arm that held the bow. Little Berthome needed no other listener to kindle his enthusiasm. But a cruel step-mother appeared on the scene suddenly one day, and with a single blow of her slipper annihilated the octopedal audience.

1879, R[obert] Vashon Rogers Jr., “Accidents, Rooms, Dogs”, in The Law of Hotel Life, or The Wrongs and Rights of Host and Guest, San Francisco, Calif.: Sumner Whitney and Company; Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Osgood & Co.; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, →OCLC, page 42