Jen- please stop here!

[vam]

Hi, Jen- you were nice enough to respond to my post last week about my cat's amputated tail. Well, sure enough, he had to have the rest of it taken off on Monday and it seems (fingers and toes crossed) to be healing much better than when we'd tried to save some of it. He's wearing an e-collar now because he was still attacking the wee bit he had left, and even with it on he tries to! Did your kitty do this? My cat seems to realize it's missing (or maybe it hurts him still or maybe, I'm fearing, he has a phantom limb thing going), then goes at it and freaks himself out and maybe hurts it more, then sulks really miserably for a long while. He NEVER used to get annoyed by anything, and didn't even know the meaning of the word aloof, so it's especially disturbing to see. Is this at all like your cat's behavior? I know you said it took months of the e-collar to make him forget about it, and I am bracing myself for that. He just hates it SO much and I think that the collar, maybe as much as his tail issue, is turning him into a different cat. I'm sure this is a lot of "wait and see," but I'd be a bit comforted to know that his agressiveness with his tail is not terribly unusual. Thanks in advance- I really appreciate it.