The day before we moved I noticed that the walls next to the garage door were stained, it looked like a chocolate fountain exploded. I had no idea what it could it be. Turns out, it was blood.

Melvin’s tail is more powerful than a light saber. It’s range of motion is astonishing and he wags it with brute force, in fact we say that his tail wags his body. While at the vet on move day it was discovered that Melvin had ‘happy tail’. His tail normally crashes into things (furniture, walls, doors) but with all the boxes at the old house his wag space was much more limited and the injury stemmed from him making so much contact with the corners of the boxes. They sent him home with a hard cast and a warning: casting the tail is tricky (read almost impossible). The cast lasted six hours. It was able to dent drywall and bruise legs before flying off of his wildly wagging appendage. Called the vet and they said to come back in the next day.

The next day happened to be our first morning in the new house. Melvin awoke, went for a walk and had breakfast. I had my first cup of coffee in our new home. The peacefulness lasted 38 seconds. As my family started to arrive Melvin’s tail went into turbo motion and one swift hit to the corner of the kitchen cabinets and all hell broke loose. Imagine a sprinkler, the type that spin a bit wildly. Now imagine you have the sprinkler hooked up to a blood source. Melvin’s tail started spurting blood all over the place. Across the brand new white cabinets. Across freshly painted walls. The ceilings are nine-feet high and yet blood made it up there.

One emergency vet trip later and we are now trying a soft wrap. So far it seems to have staying power. The secret is apparently to keep the dog’s tail from wagging. Oh sure, I’ll get right on that. Melvin’s tail wags in his sleep. For now we are doing what we can, the alternative is tail docking which upsets me too much to think about.

Photos below of the soft cast and one of Melvin on a self-imposed time out. Why he choose to face the wall is still a mystery.