here we go again ::sigh::

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 18:59:14 +0000 (UTC), "Helen Miles"
wrote:

The final scab has fallen off Lilly-Whiskers tail where it was cut by
the ******* that tortured her, and it appears that the very end of the
tail bone is exposed. I have a feeling that when she sees the vet
tomorrow afternoon, he's going to recommend partial tail amputation.

Please purr for a positive outcome. It's one thing after another with
this little one, and she's already been through so much. (

Ta muchly

Helen M

Fortunately, that is fairly minor surgery and should heal quickly. I
lived in the dormitory at Belmont College (now Belmont University) in
Nashville, TN during my sophomore year, and noticed a cute stray
kitten that various students were feeding. A few days later, I saw
the same kitten again; she was limping, and most of her tail was
blackened and hairless. I thought that someone had burned her, and
called my parents, who took her to an after-hours vetinary hospital
for surgery. It turned out that, rather than being burned, her tail
and the inside of one thigh had been slashed, probably by a car fan.
The vet had to amputate most of her tail due to gangrene, which had
caused the blackened appearance.

My parents adopted her and named her Tinkerbelle. She walked rather
stiffly for several months, but eventually regained her full
hoolikitten agility, including climbing to the top of the drapes
numerous times. She had a tail-stump about one inch long. The end of
the stump remained hairless, but otherwise made a full recovery.

My parents let Tinkerbelle have one litter of kittens before having
her spayed, and the next-door neighbors were amazed that the kittens
had full-length tails, despite knowing that their mother had lost hers
to an accident. They told me several times that they had thought that
injuries to the parent animal would be inherited by the offspring. Of
course, these were the same people who bought supermarket tabloids
each week and believed everything they read. The neighbor lady once
said to me, "Of course it's all true! Why would they print anything
false?".

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria