Miami Jones
<iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii@iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.com> wrote
in rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

Any cat licking itself to obsession is stressed beyond sanity or
abused.  I was visiting a zoo in Granby, Quebec, and there was a cage
with a tiger furiously sucking the tip of its tail to baldness and a
black leopard staring at nothing but catatonia.  It was damp everywhere
because they had no real place to pee, and people banging on the
windows throughout zoo hours.  It was truly sad.