# Cats and their tails?



## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

I know little about cats' tails, apart from how to tell their moods by the movement of the tail.

Do your cats like their tails stroked? Or hate it? Are tails off-limits to us? Do they like us to play with their tails?


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

MowMow doesn't like it at all. I can run my hand down his tail as an extension of stroking his back but if I go straight for the tail he leaves.

Shepherd Book lets me run his tail through my fingers and will purr for hours while I do that. 

Same thing when they are laying on the bed relaxed. MowMow always has his tail tucked close to his body but Book's is always flopping around wherever it lands. Often that is how I know if Mow is very deeply asleep, I'll be able to lift his tail easily and it's not glued to his backside.


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## spotty cats (Sep 23, 2011)

Mine are all fine with tail touching, and I raise kittens to be used to all kinds of touching

I can stroke the full length of the cat, hold/pick up their tail whenever I want. My nephews also are allowed to touch tails (and whiskers)


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

Missy is OK with tail touching and I comb it when brushing. She was a little leery at first, but now she trusts me. It's needed to get the loose hair from around the base of the tail.

I'm sure Zenobi had been badly abused so I never got around to stroking her tail (She had sharp teeth.) and we were together for such a short, short time before her untreatable, metastasising lung cancer required me to make the decision.


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## Jacq (May 17, 2012)

Io's tail is so poofy that she barely even notices anyone touching it (and I've _seen_ my partner run over the fluffy part with his computer chair without waking her up). It picks up carpet fluff like nobodies business and she usually lets me brush it without too much of a fuss - though if I spend too long on the underside she'll pull it away like "ok that's enough now."


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## Poetess (May 2, 2012)

Finn doesn't mind it most of the time. If he's mellow and laying in my lap, he likes his tail being pet, but if he's in kitten-mode, he'll grab it away with his front paws. hehe


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## scottd (Jun 28, 2011)

Tina doesn't seem to care but it certainly gets her attention if I touch it. I think it's funny. I'm not sure that she does though. :neutral:


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## Marshel (Dec 22, 2010)

Colonel seems to like his tail stroked. When he is laying beside me I often times begin to stroke him starting at the head. When I get to the base of his tail, I wrap my fingers Loosely around it and pull gently up. When I realease it plops to the ground. I get a few tail plops from him and we start again.
Onyx doesn't appear to mind her tail being touched, but I don't get a more responds from her at tail touching.


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## BroganMc (Feb 28, 2010)

Mine respond by looking at me with that "What are you doing?" glare. They don't mind so much but prefer a head or back rub. Now if I reach for their paws they really think I'm nuts.

One thing my nervous/huntress kitty does is immediately arch her butt and drop her head to the ground if I touch her tail. Isn't that her sign that she thinks I'm a male cat and she's dropping to her sexual pose? I always found it weird when my previous kitty did that. Usually I stop and just scratch her head instead.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

Blaze has no problem with it, Blacky gets a little annoyed if I keep touching it so I back off when she starts to protest.

I think a lot of cats don't like it being touched.


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## cinderflower (Apr 22, 2012)

none of my cats mind, but i have always wondered about their tails when they play with it. can't they feel it? don't they know what it's about to do? seeing a cat play with its own tail doesn't seem like it would be very much fun, kind of playing with your own foot.

they do seem to grow out of doing that though, so maybe it's just the play-with-anything-that-moves mode of kittens.


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## my5kitties (Sep 13, 2005)

cinderflower said:


> none of my cats mind, but i have always wondered about their tails when they play with it. can't they feel it? don't they know what it's about to do? seeing a cat play with its own tail doesn't seem like it would be very much fun, kind of playing with your own foot.
> 
> they do seem to grow out of doing that though, so maybe it's just the play-with-anything-that-moves mode of kittens.


Midnight is nearly 8 years old and she still plays with her tail. So cute!


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## Huge2 (Jan 28, 2008)

Peggy has got better with tail stroking. She doesn't like strangers touching it, but she'll tolerate it if it's us.


BroganMc said:


> Mine respond by looking at me with that "What are you doing?" glare. They don't mind so much but prefer a head or back rub. Now if I reach for their paws they really think I'm nuts.
> 
> One thing my nervous/huntress kitty does is immediately arch her butt and drop her head to the ground if I touch her tail. Isn't that her sign that she thinks I'm a male cat and she's dropping to her sexual pose? I always found it weird when my previous kitty did that. Usually I stop and just scratch her head instead.


Depends if you smell like a male cat...


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## yingying (Jul 19, 2011)

My Meatball has the most beautiful bushy tail that shimmers under sunlight. I think she knows that as well, because she holds her tail tall like a flag all the time. And she enjoys her tail being stroked. She waggles her tail when I talk to her. One of my favorite thing is to hold her tail in my hand with only the black tip showing, and then talk to her. It's hilarious to see that black tip waggling above my hand, like a little furry hamster :lol:

My Metoo doesn't appreciate tail touching very much, but she will let me (well, she let me do literally anything to her). When I brush her, tail is the last part I brush because she will get impatient with that. But Metoo got the most adorable white tip on her tail and I cannot help touching it whenever I see it. So Metoo ends up getting quite a lot of tail stroking as well


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## LilRed (Jul 16, 2008)

Both mine are OK with me stroking their tail but not big fans of it. Koko will even let me comb hers. 

Lucy much prefers I stroke her head & shoulders while she wraps her tail around my forearm. I love it when she does this!


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