If you’ve ever had a cat, you may have noticed that when they’re young, they sometimes chase their tails.  It’s cute, but it also looks rather silly - we all know their tail is attached, and they’ll never really be able to do much with it, even if they do catch it.

My cat Joey was no exception.  He was a master tail chaser.  He could leap into the air, and circle around a couple times before landing with his tail in his mouth.  Of course, once caught, his tail did lose some of its allure.

And, oddly enough, even though he’s no longer a kitten, he still chases his tail sometimes.   I would have thought he would have outgrown that, but I recently discovered why he does it.

Actually, the end of his tail isn’t really connected to the rest of him.  That may sound odd, but I’ve noticed that the very tip of his tail swishes back and forth all the time.  It doesn’t mean he’s about to pounce on something.  The end of his tail just seems to have a mind of its own.

So, I can understand why he sometimes looks around, sees this thing swishing behind him, and decides to take action.

This point was brought home to me the other day when I noticed that he was just laying down for a nap, and the end of his tail was still going.  In fact, it seems that wherever his tail ends up when he finally falls asleep – well, it just stays there.  So, the fact that he considers it a foreign object kinda makes sense.

As you can see in the photos below — if his tail is in the “up” position when he finally falls asleep, that’s exactly where it stays.  And, you know he was really asleep because the flash of the camera always gets his attention.

I don’t laugh at him any more when he chases his tail.  I am confident that one day, he really will subdue the thing once and for all.