The Lollipop Guild

I took the Hooligan to a new vet today and while I was there talking with the vet, I asked him about my kitten's oddly short tail. Now, before you think I'm being weird, take a look at a "normal" cat's tail. Could it touch the ground if it were hanging down? Yes? The Hooligan's can't. It's not bobbed or manx-like, it's short. And crooked. Then there's his legs. They look...different. They're short and kind of squatty looking. And he looks kind of bow-legged in the front. And did I mention that his butt sits higher than his shoulders? That can't be right. His eyes are sort of small as well. Overall, he looks...goofy. I stand by that as an educated and highly specific description for his condition. The vet agrees (sort of). He looked the Hooligan over very carefully. He picked him up and eyed him from all sides and every angle. He rotated the Hooligan's shoulders and felt of all his joints. He ran his hands over his whole body starting at his ears and going to the tip of his short, kinked up tail. And then, he told me that my new kitten appears to have some sort of dwarfism. What? Is that even possible? How can something that's less than a foot tall full grown have dwarfism? How would you even know? And how much inbreeding would be required to get to this point? So, I guess I can add one more oddball to the mix. I swear I cannot pick a normal animal. From the first cat that I picked out when I was 19 that turned out to be retarded (long story, another day) all the way through to this, not one has been "normal". Sheesh! I either have really bad luck, or I have some sort of magnet for the ones with special needs. Actually, if I think back over the men that have been in my life, I'm not so sure this magnet doesn't work on them as well.