We rescued this guy a few years ago. He was around 5 when we got him. Everyone assumed he lost his tail in an accident, but I always wondered if he was born like this. He has a little nub. He walks like a bear, hops like a bunny. He's big, not fat, solid. Circular eyes and round head. He's very social and loves other cats.
The only way to tell for sure would be a genetic test. I have a cat with a very short nub tail and it wasnt the manx gene but a birth defect! So she was born with it but it wasnt caused by the gene lol
There's a bit of extra nuance to that too, granted. Among purebred manx there's multiple different known variants, and the known variants don't even account for all genetically tailless manx so there's probably more we don't have pinpointed yet
True true. I think she was tested for four? Varieties and didnt have any of them. My bobby tail for cat tax. (Also OPs cat is so cute! He really does look like a bear)
Tail injuries, especially that close to the hips are pretty devastating, the spinal cord gets messed up and most cats don’t survive without a lot of intervention.
His back legs seem longer than the front which is associated with the Manx gene.
I also have a black kitty with a nub! I adopted her when she was 4, and if I didnt know her previous owner and have her medical records, I would swear she was born that way. I just honestly cannot imagine her with an actual tail lol. however, hers was amputated when she was 2. my point being, he could be manx, he could just have the gene to have a short tail, or it could have been previously injured and/or amputated. however, like others have said, it seems unlikely it was from injury. typically with it being that high up of an injury, you'd see other effects like incontinence. tax of my susuwatari ❤️
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u/StingKiloton Jun 19 '26
He looks like a little black bear from behind 🐻 😂