Why, Satanic Minions, Why!?!?!

Imagine letting your cute little black kitty out for the night.

Now imagine seeing a little piece of twig stuck in the fur of her tail.


Now imagine realizing that the twig is actually her spine protuding from her tail.

Yes, Willis (aka Willow, Mammal, Ma'am, and now No-Tail McSawherspine) had the skin and fur mysteriously stripped from the tip third of her little kitty tail. Left exposed were three actual segments of bloody white cat bone. Pretty gross.

So anyway, queasily on the way to the vet, we're like "It's Close To Halloween! A Black Cat! There Are Tales (no pun intended) Of Devil-Worshippers Mutilating Black Cats On All-Hallows Eve! Even Bans On Black Cat Adoptions Around Oct. 31st! Could It Have Been Satanists? A Cult? Teenagers In Black Ill-Fitting Clothes and Elaborate Poorly-Researched-But-Possibly-Celtic Tattoos? Yes! It Must Have Been The Satanists Or Those Under Their Sway!"

But. Apparently, this is normalish. The vet said cat's tails were similar to lizard tales (except they don't pop completely off and they don't regenerate... okay, not so lizard-like after all). Have no idea what happened or exactly when, but apparently Willis got hung up on something or pinched in a doorway or airlock or something and yanked herself right out from under her tailskin.

Since the skin wasn't gonna grow back, and to get rid of potentially infected areas and stuff, they AMPUTATED almost two-thirds of her already stubby tail! Very sad. But she's seemingly unbothered by the experience (give or take the car trip to the vet and a pathetic case of unblinking post-anesthesia wobblies and not being able to go outside).

Anyway. She gets her stitches out in a couple of days and her hair is growing back (see pics of her bald nub and arm- where they had to run an IV during surgery). So all's well that ends well.

But still. If it was The Satanists (and you know who you are), I'm sending you guys a bill. Stupid jerks.