Shedding Fur from Tweak's Tail

The Artifact

Cat Hair. Black. Shed from the Tip of the Tail of James's Mom's Cat "Tweak". In a mylar bag. Early 21st century, c.e.

The Category

Shed happens. That's a fact of life, and of the entropy that governs the entire cosmos. Anything that is put together tends to fall apart, unless lubricated and varnished on a regular basis, or treated with leather balm, or sprayed with moth spray, or, sometimes, overhauled completely.

And The Tip of James's Mom's Cat's Tail is no different. It got knocked off in one of those aluminum screen doors, was brought to us in Tupperware, is mounted in a reliquary, and is now shedding. What more can we say? "Nothing lasts forever." We knew that when we signed up.

The artifact is shedding, and shedding of its own accord. One wonders if this is evidence of some weird, concurrent emulation of the seasonal cycles of its host, the black cat, who no doubt is growing out his Winter coat about now (October, 2008). It's just a theory. We know that individuals sometimes feel localized phantom pain relating to their amputated extremity. Perhaps the tail too is moving through the grief of the loss of the entire organism that once sustained it. Perhaps the tail is just doing what its accustomed to—shedding twice a year.

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