April 3, 2018

PROS AND CONS OF BEING TAILLESS

A Tale of No Tail on Tabby Tuesday

When I  joined the Kitties Blue family, my new mom knew very little about Manx cats. She knew we originated on the Isle of Mann and that we didn’t have tails. She started doing a bit of research and discovered that Manx cats are not necessarily tailless. We can actually be born with a full tail or a stub of a tail as well.

It is a naturally occurring genetic mutation that gives Manx cats the potential for being born without a tail. This gene is an incomplete dominant gene, and kitties born with it can have any of these tail types. In fact, all of these can occur in the same litter. Manx kitties with no tails, like me, are rumpies. Cats born with stumps, which can be curved, knotted or kinked, are stumpies. Kitties with normal length tails are known as longies.

So that’s a bit of information about Manx cats and tails. Now I want to tell you my pros and cons of not having a tail. For me, the pros far outweigh the cons.

But first, here’s a close up of my butt in this photo where I am playing with Cooper Murphy. As you can see, no tail. I do have a tuft of fur growing where my tail would me.

 

Manx Sawyer has no tail.

 

PROS:

  • My fursibs cannot play with or bite my tail, which Cooper Murphy might have tried when we were playing.
  • If I ever encounter a little kid, they can’t pull my tail or try to pick me up by it.
  • My humans cannot step on my tail.
  • My tail cannot be shut in a door or caught under a rocking chair.
  • I can spend less time grooming with no tail to wash.

That’s a pretty good list. Can you think of any other pros? Let me know in the comments.

CONS:

  • I cannot use my tail to cover my eyes and block out light when I want to nap.
  • I cannot wrap my tail around my body to keep warm.
  • My humans cannot tell my mood by watching my tail movements. I can wiggle my butt, which makes the tuft of furs move around but that’s not helpful.

As you can see, this is a pretty short list. As with the pros, if you can think of any cons I missed, let me know in the comments.

In the future I will post other facts about the Manx breed and how those things pertain to me.

Purrs and paw-pats, Sawyer