Austin Left Shiny, Furless

Austin Dern, coati, lost all his fur in a brief incident at the Shiny Day Ball, held in the Jellicle Ballroom and hosted by Mayor Jaxen, fox. The incident occurred shortly after Austin arrived, as Good Morning, Starshine was playing, and after some scratching of his heavy winter fur. More fur than usual came loose during the scratching and silver-stranded pieces began floating around the room.

It was during Jump Jump Jump; The Kangaroo Song that Austin shivered some, and sneezed, following which all his fur shed in moments. Most of it collapsed into a pile around him; some went fluttering around the Ballroom, where the silver added to the lighting effects and general shininess of things. Austin was left with a matted skin.

BunnyHugger, devilbunny, put it immediately into context: “How is that possible? If it’s like mine it might take ages to grow back! … It’s never happened to me, but occasionally rabbits will shed so quickly that their new fur won’t keep pace and they’ll get bald areas.” PatchO’Black, Jellicle cat, simply dubbed him, “the Silver Coati!”, and Mavra, centaur, noted “While you’ll be saving on shampoo, you’ll be spending it on skin lotion”, as though this were a particular choice he’d made.

Despite considerable concern about how Austin would stay warm he expressed vague confidence: “I don’t know … We’ll have to see what happens.” He did bury his nose into BunnyHugger’s fur for much of the night, which may have been expected to happen anyway.

Since the Shiny Day Ball, Austin has been painted with the imitation of tail rings along his whole body. His fur has not grown back significantly.