I had quite the scare the other night. As dark sable Pan was ambling across the living room, my heart fell as I saw that his hair appeared to be thinning at the base of his tail. "He's not even 2 yet," I thought, "he's too young for adrenal!" I picked him up and examined his rump (Pan: "hey, quit it! Leave my bottom alone!"), but couldn't find any bare patches or really anywhere that the fur looked very thin. Yet when I put him back down, again it looked like he was starting to thin out at the base of the tail. It was a mystery. The next morning, under better light, I examined Pan again (and in turn, Pan again told me to knock it off). Would you believe that the little rascal's winter coat markings include a white ring around the base of his tail and lower rump!?! White guardhairs on a white undercoat made it look like there was a patch of fur missing. Aargh!!! I'm sure he thought it would be a neat trick to play on us, that little trickster weasel! signed, a relieved Regina Pan: *smirk* Seti: *huh?* Regina Harrison [log in to unmask] everything moved: http://users.rcn.com/badriya/ blog: http://badriya-z.blogspot.com/ "Is that my business? Well, what is my business? Do I know? Did I ever know? Let s not go into that. You re not human tonight, Marlowe. Maybe I never was or ever will be... Maybe we all get like this in the cold half-lit world where always the wrong thing happens and never the right." --Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister [Posted in FML issue 4330]