A cat's unusual tail has sparked conversation online after a viral Reddit post shared by her owner asked: "Can you please help me convince my husband my cat Cookie's tail is NOT normal?"
Shared on the popular forum r/Cats on Reddit, the post from Cookie's owner Lisa (pinkeskimo on reddit) has over 10,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments.
Lisa and her husband Michael live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. They adopted Cookie from a humane society when she was just 3 months old. Lisa told Newsweek: "We don't know her breed. Her mom looked like a grayish tortie, and her brother looked very Siamese. We describe her as a Siamix lynxico."
The two pictures that have caught the attention of the internet show Cookie sitting on the floor with legs outstretched and her quirky tail on show—instead of sitting behind her, it folds back onto her body and back towards her head.
Cookie's owner and poster pinkeskimo said: "When we say her name she picks it up and then it falls all the way over and hits her in the head."
Commenters on the popular discussion site were in awe of the feline's unique tail, with one user writing: "All I can think is, she's saying, 'paint me like one of your French girls'—that tail is fierce." Another said: "It's certainly different but I love it!"
Others commented on the length of Cookie's magnificent tail, with one commenter writing: "That's a super long tail. My cat's tail absolutely cannot touch the back of her head." Pinkeskimo updated the thread writing: "I just got out my tape measure and I kid you not, Cookie's tail is 14.5 inches!"
The average tail length of a male cat is around 11 inches, while a female tail measures on average around 9.9 inches.
The Guinness World Record for the longest tail on a domestic cat ever is held by silver Maine Coon Cygnus from Ferndale, Michigan, with a tail measuring a huge 17.58 inches.
Another commenter shared that their cat of the same breed was similar, writing: "This is what we call 'tea pot tail' in my house, i.e. a tail that folds over like it's a handle. My cat has one too."
Discussing the distinctive curl in Cookie's "tea pot tail," many Redditors suggested a genetic cause. One user wrote: "There's a (harmless) genetic mutation that occurs in cats sometimes that causes the tail to be curled to various degrees."
One of the few cats with a documented curled tail is the American Ringtail, a relatively new breed. In 1998, when Susan Manley rescued a kitten with a unique tail that would curl over his back, she had him examined by a vet. The latter was sure that there was no underlying medical issue or deformity that caused his tail to curl. In 1999, Manley began a breeding program to reproduce the curled tail. By 2005, the International Cat Association, gave her new "American Ringtail" breed "Registration Only" status.
Lisa told Newsweek: "Her tail has always been like this and I don't know why! There is never a sign that it bothers her in any way though—and no injuries or anything like that. I think she just likes to lay like that."
On the Reddit forum, Lisa later shared another theory about the distinctive tail: "I think she might be part lemur," she joked.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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