Owner spends $1000 rushing his cat to the vet only to find out that the feline stretched so hard, she dislocated her tail, she is now "zooted", recovering and purrfectly happy

Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor

Jun 4, 2026 1:30 PM EDT

We have ended up at the vet's with our cats for a myriad of different funny reasons, but our cat "stretching too hard" might be the funniest one that we have heard.

Over out time writing for ICHC, we have heard of some absolutely ridiculous reasons people ended up at the vet's with their cats for. People paying hundreds of dollars because their cats had tummy aches and didn't know how to handle them. People paying thousands of dollars because their cats couldn't stand the diet that they were on and rebelled against them. Cats eating things that they shouldn't eat, cats being overdramatic about something completely normal, cats being spooked by something and having a crazy reaction. Some of the most expensive vet visits are over silly things with cats.

And yet, with everything that we have seen, we think that this story from r/blackcats might be the most ridiculous. We didn't even know that cats could dislocate their tails, let alone do it because they were doing a biiiig stretch. Those are supposed to be cute, not dangerous. Cats are built for stretching as big as possible. Or at least that is what we thought. We also didn't think that a dislocated tail from stretching would end up costing $1000!

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"Spent $1000 on this idiot cuz she stretched too hard and dislocated her tail"

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Cats somehow sense whenever we are in a decent financial situation, we swear. They know, and just like they like to cause trouble with everything else, they choose to cause trouble with this too. $1000 on a dislocated tail because of stretching too hard is something that we, as people who write about cats every single day for a living, have never heard about. Ever. She had to have been trying to do this for it to have worked. That could not have happened randomly, “just because”.
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via Unsplash / Zooey Li

Black cat in the middle of stretching, as modeled by a purrfect black kitty.
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via Unsplash / Andreea Popa

Black cat hiding under a blanket, as shown by a cat meowdel.
Listen, in some ways, we are sure that she was just as confused by this as you were. She just wanted to cause some trouble, she didn't want to end up in pain herself. A miscalculation. Happens to the best of us. Hopefully, she learned her lesson from this time and won't let it happen again next time. Maybe. But probably not.
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via Unsplash / Dare Artworks - dareartworks

A picture of a fluffy black cat.
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