oFia

Otherwise known as - a crazy hilarious thing my cat did recently - that I may never see happen again. Well, it sure looked like she was high.

A few nights ago I was watching tv with my boyfriend and I had some Valerian tea. I had put the mug down on the coffee table because it was still a little hot -- letting it cool there instead of on the kitchen counter like I usually do. Well, one of my cats came by to inspect it - and inspect it she did! She got her nose down in the mug and sniffed and sniffed. I'm pretty sure she didn't drink any of it.

The next thing we know she is laying on her side on the floor using her front feet to pull herself forward going around in circles. She's going nuts! She doesn't stop for easily 2-3 minutes. One circle, then another, faster and faster. And she's moving across the floor. Then she just lays there. Then she's still laying there and we notice she's breathing really heavy. Then we notice she's looking at us like "Leave me alone! I'm just gonna ... lay here... for a little while." We couldn't stop laughing the whole time... and then I felt bad for laughing at her - I swear we were getting dirty cat looks.

Anyways, I have since discovered that valerian and catnip are somewhat related. Does anyone know if they are both in the "mint family?" Oh yea. And she doesn't do much with catnip. I'm guessing the hot water might have brought out more of the smell of the valerian for her though. My avatar is the above mentioned cat.

Anyone want to retell hilarious pet stories? (I just picked up my other cat and put him on the floor cause he was trying to lick yogurt out of the empty Yoplait container beside me.)

shakran

yeah, it's probably a catnip type reaction. Some cats don't respond to the catnip you buy in pet stores, but if you know someone that grows it, you can dry the fresh stuff and they'll usually go apeshit with it. The tea was probably a lot stronger than the (weak, crappy) catnip you buy in stores.

Meditrina

at the image of what your cat was doing. You described it so vividly! Thanks for the chuckle.


Catnip is in the mint family? well, that explains why my cat tries to stick his nose in our mouths after we brush our teeth and has now taken a liking to my purse which has spearmint gum in it. He rubs his whole body against it.

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Atropos4

My cats do several crazy things..Sniffles the calico is insane. I've taken a few videos of them in the act...


Sniffles loves to play with shoes. She gets a little weird with them though. We'd always wondered how our shoes would be untied in the morning. This is why. Sniffles has a shoe fetish. Doesn't matter if they are old or new, laced or flip flops...she loves them all

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Swirlie

Yup.. valerian drives 'em nuts. Just like catnip. I usually tale Valerian capsules (HORRID smelling things) before bedtime and dropped one one time. The cats went NUTS. I grabbed it before that ate it, but wondered about the reaction. I Google'd it and found out it's not bad for them, so I figured I'd give them a small taste.

That was an interesting few minutes, that's for sure....

Daniel_

One of my friends once had a bag of catnip in his back pocket, and my cats went ape biting and clawing his arse - in the end he had to go and change his trousers adn leave the catnip trousers in a bag in a locked room.

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oFia

Atropos4 --- That's awesome!!

Swirlie --- So now I'm tempted to give my 10 month old kitten (who will play with anything he can carry off) a valerian capsule to play "soccer" with.

Willravel

My previous dog, a wire-haired fox terrier named Schnookie, was about 5 years old when we moved into a new house. It was customary for him to run barking towards the front door when the doorbell was rung. The first time our new doorbell was rung, Schnookie, being consistent if nothing else, ran off barking....and into the master bedroom at the other end of the house. We all just stood looking at him. It was hilarious. It took him a bit to learn where the front door was.