A few years ago I posted about a problem with out cat Sylvester’s tail. We were worried that it was broken, but our vet thought it might only have been sprained (a sprained tail?). There was a possibility of an amputation, if it was dead.

Liam coincidentally commented on my last post to ask what had happened to Sylvester’s tail. The answer is that he recovered fairly quickly and has had full use of his tail ever since; it’s fluffy, and it sheds, and holds copious quantities of dust and debris, just like a cat’s tail is supposed to. It looks normal and appears to be fully functional.

In the last few months, a new stray has appeared around our house. It started prowling and snooping on the front porch. We didn’t recognize it, and we certainly don’t need another cat, so I chased it away. It’s very careful, so any time it sees me it hightails it down the driveway and then up towards a neighbor’s house. Our neighbors had an outdoor cat that they fed on their porch, so I assumed the new cat was staying up there and eating that cat’s food, only coming down to our house to compare cat food brands.

I used the past tense because our neighbors moved away a couple of weeks ago, taking their cat (we sincerely hope) and its outdoor food. Now the new cat comes up onto our porch fairly often to eat the food we put out for our two outdoor cats. If it sees us, it hightails it back towards out neighbor’s house. It must have found some place to sleep, maybe under a porch or in one of the out buildings.

The cat looks well fed so far. It’s very skittish, so we haven’t been able to get a good look, and certainly not a photograph. Here’s the coincidence — this new cat has a deformed and shortish tail. When I got a good look at it a few nights ago I immediately thought about Sylvester’s tail of woe. I had not thought about that in years.

The cat is mainly gray, with short ears. Its tail is kinked, and about three-quarters the length of a normal cat tail. It seems to be a fighter, which is no surprise; it is, after all, a cat.

We hope it finds a home somewhere away from us. We have talked about trying to trap it and find it a home, but it might be too feral for that. Plus, if we set a trap, we are more likely to catch one of our own cats. I doubt that it will ever let us near.

Now, as to that dancing dog.

When we come home from running an errand, both dogs meet us at the back door. Zoe comes right to the door so she can wipe her nose on our legs, but Sam hangs back at the far side of the kitchen, where he does a little dance until we can get to him to give him some pets.

It turns out he’s a tap dancer.

I’m not sure how well you can hear his tapping, what with all the dog tags jingling and general commotion, but it seems to be clearest at the end of the clip. I think he has real possibilities.