Well, it wasn't during the spring and summer months last year that we noticed it, but our Leo, who we adopted in April 2004, started licking and picking at his belly fur quite a bit from the late fall on, when we started to have to use our heat a lot more. We think it's b/c it's far too dry in this house we're renting - there's no humidifier. We're about to move into the house we bought, so hopefully that will change. Leo doesn't seem to be messing with the patches of fur that he licked/agitated off as much now, so instead of bare belly, it's belly with peach fuzz. We even took him to the vet in December and got him a steroid shot for potential allergies, and nothing seemed to change, other than him not messing with that area much after that.

I guess it just takes a long time for fur to grow back - I had no idea - our Leila had a bare belly when we first adopted her b/c of her spaying just before that, and her fur grew back so quickly, but her fur is a lot thinner and shorter than Leo's.