The Bald Tail Incident.........

Let me start about 3 months back. Mrs. Lime's sister, Blondie, noticed that our dog, Casanova, would chase his tail on occasion. She encouraged this behavior to the point where after a month or so, Casanova would simply start chasing his tail on command. He would also start chasing his tail anytime someone new entered the house just to try to get attention. There were two dogs in the house and that was his best way of getting people to pay attention to him instead of the other dog.

Casanova was a pretty big dog at that time. Over the past couple of months, he's dropped about 10-15 pounds. Unfortunately, that means he can now actually catch his tail and pull on it. As a result, he started pulling out the hair on his tail when he would catch it. So now, the last 4 inches or so of his tail are void of hair for the most part.

So, on Saturday, we head over to my sister's house to play poker. We took Casanova along so he could play with her dog and cat. He walked right in the house and, after establishing who the alpha dog was, started chasing his tail to make sure he got attention from everyone in the house. He even went to the extent of chasing his tail under the table when people stopped paying attention to him, just so he could get some attention.

My parents were assuring me that something was wrong with him. They worried (as parents often do) to the point where they actually consulted the vet in their area and determined that Casanova may have a brain tumor! Obviously, they had not seen his slow learning process and understood that this all goes back to it being an encouraged behavior.

So, in order to avoid any further worries, action has been taken. The following is an open letter from Casanova to Blondie:

Dear Blondie,

You told me that chasing my tail for attention was a good thing. Since then, I have been told I was sick and may have a brain tumor. As a result, I had to go to my vet (which you know I just hate with a passion).

I have now been told that I have a behavior/discipline problem by my vet. He says that everything you taught me is wrong. I told the vet that was impossible, but he told me I had behavior issues. So, in order to break this habit, I get to wear this stupid floral thing that the vet gave us around when my humans are away from the house and also when I go to bed. I put up with it, but I'm not really happy about it.

The vet says if this doesn't break me of the habit after a week or so, I will have to receive further behavior training to break me of my tail-chasing habit. I personally wish my tail would just quit following me. It would be much easier to stop chasing it that way. Maybe I'll be born without a tail in my next life to avoid this whole situation.

I've asked Lime to enclose a picture of me so you can see the stupid floral thing I have to wear.

Sincerely,
Casanova