Well, I’ve gotten a lot of use out of a “fox-like” tail I made several years ago. You’ll need:

A Wire Coathanger (1960s vintage - back when they were strong) 2 feet of garden hose.

The tube of fur that has the colorations you want. Almost 3 feet long. An elastic strap long enough to go around your waist.

First we need to build a brace that will fit up tightly against your coccyx. Take the Coathanger wire and bend it into the following shape from A, to B, … to G.

A to B is about 3.5 inches (~8.9 cm) C to D is about 3.5 inches (~8.9 cm) D to E is about 3.5 inches (~8.9 cm)

  /------------------------------------------------------------------\
 B|                            A  G                                  |C
  \-----------------------------  | /--------------------------------/
                                | |D
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                                | |
                               F\_/E

When you get to G, bend the wire up, perpendicular to the T - this is where you will mount the tail armature (the garden hose). The brace should fit nicely against the coccyx, and E/F will rest between your buttocks but should not extend down far enough to touch any “sensitive regions”.

The elastic strap should be attached to B and C. It will go around your waist. You will probably want to add a hook and eye in the middle of the elastic.

Now take the wire sticking out at G and double it back on itself just enough to make a “U” shape that you can slide the garden hose onto. Cut off any excess wire.

Cut off one foot (30.5 cm) of garden hose and put it on the “U” shaped wire. It should go on tightly.

Now take another foot (30.5 cm) of garden host and split it lengthwise. Take one of those halves and push it several inches (cm) into the open end of the unsplit piece of garden hose. It should go in tight and stay just by friction.

This completes the armature. Now slide the fur tube over the garden hose. The tail is now rather stiff at the top (solid garden hose), flexible in the middle (split gardenhose) and free hanging/free flowing at the end (nothing inside the tube). Taa Daa!

Now to make it usable, you will want to wrap the coathanger in tape and/or cloth (or it may poke or pinch). I used duct tape. Cloth would be better, but I got lazy.

Now to make the fur tube stay on the armature, you will need to attach it to the coathanger brace somehow - use strong thread, or safety pins or whatever seems best.

This tail should track with the pelvis almost perfectly, and it looks good on the dance floor, too!

James Firmiss’s AJ Skunk tail design
http://web.archive.org/web/20020223152049/http://elvis.neep.wisc.edu/~firmiss/costume.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20011206062246/granicus.if.org/~firmiss/costume.html