Freezing your tail end reminds me of a traditional Ojibwe animal story. Lots of stories supposedly explained how animals look or their behavior. I think I told you the one about why dogs sniff each others tails, if not I'll share it. (Traditional stories are only told when there is snow on the ground, but there is, so I can tell one.) The story that came to mind is about our elder brothers, the black bears (ni siiyay mukwahwug).
Long ago, before the coming of the white man Mukwah had a magnificent bushy tail, better than anybody in the forest including the fox. One day Mukwah woke up from his hibernation nap and realized his stomach was growling... that's what woke him up. What to do? He stepped outside his den and not only it wasn't spring thaw yet, it was really cold and there was lots of snow on the ground. He looked over at the nearby lake and saw that it was frozen and figured maybe he'd do some ice fishing. Fish would be good. Walleye, maybe.
He managed to break a hole in the ice and figured his tail would be attractive and when a fish took a nibble he'd yank his tail out and land a fish! So he carefully lowered his bushy tail under the cold water and wagged a little now and then, kind of like what we do today jigging for walleye. That's what he did and he kept at it even though the fish weren't biting. He did it for so long that he ended up falling asleep sitting there on the ice.
When he finally woke up he discovered that his tail was frozen into the lake! Holy ....! He yanked as hard as he could with all his bear power and his magnificent tail broke off so that all that was left was just a little stub. Talk about a bad day.
So that's how Mukwah lost his bushy tail and ever since that's the way it is for brother bear.
Moosh and I are inside by the wood stove, so even though it is cold and blowing snow outside we are not freezing our tails off!!!
SB