My poor little Domino is possessed by an evil tail that twitches totally out of control. Whenever these spasms occur, she tries to outrun them, and dashes about before sitting down to try to capture it.
Yesterday, she tore around the yard, and then jumped on top of the barbecue, thumping her back legs, rabbitlike, at a rapid pace. The rest of the story you can see in this series of pictures. In some, the tail is slightly blurred as it whips about unbidden.
The origins of this twitchy tail occurred before Domino became mine. As a tiny kitten, she belonged to my son's roommate, and I would see her when I visited Ryan (my son) who would even bring her to my house on occasion. She learned to really love riding in the car. The roommate never took her to a vet, so at the age of eight months she had her first (and only) litter of kittens. She was a very good mommy.
When she was a year old, the roommate moved out, and unbeknownst to my son, left Domino behind in the garage with a dirty litterbox, a little bit of dry food and no water. The garage was used as an extra room by the roommate. Luckily, Ryan found her before she perished from neglect, and when he called me and told me what happened, I asked him to bring her to me right away.
The poor little thing was skinny and flea-ridden, so we took care of that right away and she went to the vet as soon as possible. Since then, she has enjoyed a life of love and luxury, and goes along very happily except for the haphazard incidents with her twitchy tail. I figured she had just been born with random spasms that made her little tail go wildly out of control for short periods of time.
One day, the ex-roommate dropped by with Ryan for a brief visit, and he stopped to pet Domino. I was shocked and dismayed at what happened next. He reached down and pulled her tail and snapped it until it make a cracking sound. I shrieked! He said this was a "game" they always played and that she really liked it! How dumb can a human being actually be? Of course, I asked him to stop immediately and told him that her tail was now permanently injured. He just seemed rather blase about the whole thing -- but what can you expect from someone who abandoned their pet to begin with?
Anyway, this tale has a happy conclusion, because Domino is having the best life she could possibly have despite her sporadic twinges. She is a very loving pet who likes to arrange herself over my shoulder with her arms hanging down my back and be petted for long periods of time. I call her my "familiar" because she will also sit up near my shoulder, like a witch's black cat, or a pirate's parrot.
Domino rules our kitty roost and is the feistiest little thing you'd ever want to meet! The only thing she cannot control is her own tiny tail.
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