I wanted to thank everyone on here for their kind words.

Barney is doing well - he has been cone-free for over 24 hours and HE IS LEAVING HIS TAIL ALONE!!!! It is a few inches shorter, and the fur needs to grow back... but he is not worrying it to the point of.....
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*(those with weak stomachs, stop reading now)*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
....having the bone exposed!

His tail was unwrapped by the vet a mere week after the surgery, and while he was still in the cone, he did not seem to be bothered by it... two weeks after that, I took him to the vet to have his stitches removed, and to my horror, in the process of getting him into the carrier, ripped most of them out (he was being a mule-headed-58-legged-Ginsu-ninja). TED removed the remaining stitches (there were only 2, but there had been 6, and they were purple!), but since there was a drop (barely enough to do a blood-glucose reading on a home meter), he re-wrapped his tail so he wouldn't bother it.

Well, after 2 weeks of bare-tailed-ness... having it wrapped was a bother to him. When we did give him cone free time he tried to bother it. So we gave it a week, and then unwrapped it ourselves, leaving the cone on "just in case"... That was week ago tomorrow (Christmas Eve). Yesterday morning we took his cone off for him to eat breakfast unencumbered (we were leaving it off most the time, only when we weren't home, and at night), and since we were home all day, left it off, checking him and his tail periodically. We did not put the cone back on him last night, and tail was still fine this morning. It is still off as I type this.

All fingers and toes are crossed that Barney forgets what a bother his tail can be.