Inbred on the Tiny Isle of Man : The Manx Cat: Thereby Hangs a (Missing) Tail

The tailless Manx cat ends with the unsettling abruptness of a sawed-off shotgun, but makes up for this anatomical shortage in an abundance of love and loyalty.

And the absence of a tail has made the Manx the stuff of legend.

Its tail got caught in the doors of Noah’s Ark. It’s part cat, part rabbit. It escaped minus its tail from a Spanish shipwreck and threw a litter on this little island in the Irish Sea. Viking invaders cut off the tails to adorn their helmets. . . .

The boring truth, of course, is that it is a genetic defect enhanced by inbreeding on the tiny Isle of Man which gave it its name.

Manx cats are recognized as a distinct breed by the keepers of the pedigree books, and are highly rated for loyalty and friendliness.

Although they are bred in the United States and Britain as well as at the Manx Cattery in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man, the islanders regard it as a uniquely Manx species.

“To me, they are a symbol of this island,” said Peter Dunn, who is in overall charge of the Manx Cattery. “The Isle of Man has always been somewhat independent-minded. It stands up for its apartness, and so does the Manx cat.”

Said Iris Burgess, who breeds Manx cats in northern England: “Any fool can breed a Siamese or a Persian, but a Manx is something else.”

It’s not enough just to have no tail, explained Claire Uren of the Manx Cattery; any cat can have tailless kittens.

To qualify as Manxes, they must have long hind legs, a double coat, a tall and compact build and “absolutely no tail at all,” Uren said.

If it has a bump where its tail should be, it’s a Stumpy, an inferior breed. The real thing has a small depression at the base of the spine, covered with a tuft of hair. Then, it is a Rumpy and can sell for $100 or more.

Roughly 10% of the island’s cats are tailless, and about 30 a year are raised at the Cattery, mostly for export.

The agility of the Manx disproves the notion that cats need tails to keep their balance and to signal anger.

“You know when a Manx is angry,” Burgess said, “because you can see it in his face.

“They’re not like ordinary cats who only condescend to come to you if it suits them,” she said. “Manxes are rather like little dogs. My husband says that until you’ve been owned by a Manx you don’t know what a cat is.”