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
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a
Read more

Like Cats A'Fightin'

Image
That's a local saying when it's snowing hard. Snowing like cats a'fightin'. You can look out and see the fur flying. Ellen had never been outside while it was actually snowing. She was enchanted. She had to have a bucket of it to carry around. It was in the mid-20s but we took a bit of a walk before coming back in for a nap. The snow is still too dry to be able to make a snowman, it is really powdery. So far we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches, I would suspect.
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy.
Read more