I'm a beginner fly tyer in every sense of the word. In some ways I've gone about it backwards-- because I mostly fish salt water, I started with salt water flies, which may make me the one of the few people who ties flies but has never actually tied a wooly bugger. I'm now starting to go back to the "beginning" and have been reading Tom Rosenbauer's book sections on freshwater flies.

So this morning I'm eating a bowl of cereal, thumbing through Rosenbauer's book and looking at pictures of the hares ear nymph tying instructions. Allie walks past.

Wife: Oh, my god. Is that a bunny face?
Me: Uh, yeah.
Wife: You are NOT buying a bunny face!
Me: Why not? It's just fur.
Wife: We are not having a cute little bunny's face in the house.

So, do I just skip that pattern? Do I buy a hare's mask and hide it? Do I substitute squirrel? (we're not even going to explore how that will go over! And I'm guessing baby seal fur is right out!)

I guess buck tails are okay because they're from the deer's rear end.