Princess, the Catnip Queen

 Last night as I was lying there half asleep I thought of something profound to write in here.  But, as per usual, now that I am sitting here I have not one profound thought in my brain.  In case you hadn't noticed, I have been trying to keep this blog more active but I have trouble coming up with things to blog about.  I think my trying to be profound makes for a boring blog anyway.  But my sense of humor has been at a low ebb lately.  I don't know why.  

One funny thing recently has been watching my sister-in-law's cat play in the evenings.  She is a hoot.

This is Princess.

Well, it is Ellen holding Princess.

Princess is teeny tiny as compared to Smudge.  

But Princess has an addiction problem.  She LOVES catnip.  Gail says they have never had a cat who is as crazy about catnip as Princess is.  

Gail has a patch of catnip.  I know nothing about growing it, but it seems to come back every year.  Maybe it reseeds itself.  At any rate, she says that previous cats will sniff it and just leave it be.  And really, I don't think Princess messed too much in the fresh catnip patch.  But here a few months back Gail bought her a toy that had catnip in it and Princess went wild over it.  She played with it so much that she completely tore it apart.

This fall Gail picked and dried some of the plants before it froze back.  Then here about 2 weeks ago she got Princess another refillable catnip toy.  She put in some of her own catnip and Princess just goes wild over it.  Gail will give the toy to her when we come down of an evening to visit.  The cat will just writhe all over the floor with that little toy, she will be on her side, grab the toy with both paws and just rub it all over her face and head like baby in a highchair does with a bowl of spaghetti.  She will bite at it and rub around on it in complete abandon for about 5 minutes.  Then she will sit up, lick her paw, lick her side, and try to act all dignified again.  And for probably another full 3-5 minutes she will just sit there, looking around with big eyes, almost like she has been addled.  Directly she will recover, take a flying leap up to her napping spot, curl up and snooze.

We get great entertainment out of Princess enjoying her catnip, and make all sorts of jokes about her maybe needing rehab eventually.  But we have looked up catnip's affect on cats, and apparently it isn't harmful in any way.  According to what we've Googled, it actually isn't addictive and won't have any adverse affect on a cat, unless they eat a great deal of the green plant, which can cause vomiting.   It also says that they can become habituated to it, meaning that it will have less affect with regular exposure to it.  So maybe we need to dial back her play times with it.  But it is entertaining. 

Funny little cat. 

Comments

Donna. W said…
My cat Blue loves catnip. He liked to lay on top of the catnip plant I put in the flowerbed last summer.
December 14, 2023 at 8:07 PM
Calfkeeper said…
Aw. I think maybe I will get a patch of catnip going this next spring. I wonder if there are any practical benefits to it.
December 15, 2023 at 6:20 AM
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