I had a cat that hated his tail. He'd lie down and try to sleep, but his tail would start whipping side to side. He'd close his eyes and growl. Eventually he'd open his eyes and put one of his front paws on the end of the tail. Well, that kept the tip of it still, but from the tip to where it attached to his butt, it was still wiggling, trying to escape; so he'd place his other front paw on the middle part. That would work briefly but then the two bits between would be hopping up and down and trying to buck his paws off. Then he'd get really mad and bite it. Well that invariably hurt. So he'd get even madder and attack it, but it would move away. And there he'd go chasing it until he caught it and bit it again. Eventually, he'd give up and come back to bed. The tail would wag, but he'd just pretend he didn't know it was there.
He did that often enough that I was tempted to take him to a psychiatrist. Unfortunately, back in the middle of the 1970s, cat psychiatrists weren't advertising in the Yellow Pages.
He started that behaviour as a kitten. Kept it up until he died at the age of 17. What a weirdo.
He also swallowed a sparrow whole, one time, head first. He couldn't get it all the way in and couldn't puke it up. That was a fast cab ride to the emergency vet and a $1000 surgery. Stupid cat. He was the first cat I ever had that became an indoor cat. Since then, I've never had one that wasn't. I see too many dead cats on the streets of the city.
Feb. 4/17
2:10 am
