Even though I write about cats and appear to be fanatical about my own, I do not buy my cat “birthday” gifts, nor celebrate her birthday with cake or costumery. She doesn’t know about dates, nor years, nor perhaps the passage of time itself.
But on December 25th the sun won’t rise until 8am, and it will set at 4:30pm. The season’s festivities, rituals, lights, foliage, gifts, and shopping are something cheerful to sustain me through the dark. So I do sometimes get my cat a little something at Christmas.
This is entirely a selfish venture. This gift must entertain me as much as it does her. I want her prancing and prouncing. Sometimes it will be a toy, sometimes catnip.
Catnip is a great one for lifting the spirits of both cat and owner. How to describe a cat’s reaction to catnip? You will see them rolling, rubbing, drooling, chasing, meowing, and frisking. It is said to induce euphoria.
By that logic, many have likened it to drug use in humans. But I think that’s not quite right.
A sense of time – body image – ideas of reference – consciousness itself – we will never fathom what these mean to a cat, let alone how they may alter or stretch in the mind of a cat under the influence of a substance.
I think the effect of catnip is more like coffee, perhaps cigarettes, perhaps a little stronger. She stretches and rolls – ‘ah, how nice this is,’ she seems to say. And when she grabs my moving hand, or frisks the rug, her eyes dilated to play, she is feeling zest for life, ready for the moment, just as humans do after a bit of some stimulant.
The feeling quickly fades, however, as she habituates to the smell – ‘basta,’ she says, and turns away, on to her next errand.
I like “Yeowww!” brand. I bought a big tub of it on one occasion and sprinkle it on the floor now and then; she rolls in it and eats it. Or I rub it onto a scratching post where she will scratch and frisk it. I also have some home-grown by my friend Tom, who says it’s easy to cultivate like any other mint.
Subscribers to cats0 are welcome to request some of my catnip by mail; like any dried plant, it is losing its potency by the day, so better to share now than pitch leftovers later. It will appear that I have mailed you a packet of, yes, weed.
Many cats and owners have only experienced catnip through the fabric of a toy. I don’t give my cat any toys that have catnip because she drools on them, and if I wanted to have wet toys around the house I would get a dog.
But I also feel that a toy should hold its own, winning her attention by its own merits and staying-power as a plaything, instead of by chemical attractants that will fade over time.
I have mentioned catnip, but there are other plants that have this effect on cats. The same chemical attractant is found also in the roots and leaves of valerian, silvervine (also called matatabi), and the wood of tatarian honeysuckle.
Not all cats react to catnip, but most react to at least one of these four. My cat reacts to the first three; the latter, though invasive in North America, I have not yet gotten my hands on for an experiment.
When I gave her valerian powder she rolled on her back, stretched, rubbed, was frisky, and grabbed at my hand. She seemed at once contemplative and undomesticated. I happened to be holding a twenty dollar bill and waggled it at her; instantly she locked the hand and the money into her jaws and all four paws somehow at the same time.
When I gave her a stick of silvervine, she was about as interested as she is in a pencil— something she may bat at if in the mood, but only to humor the person playfully holding it.
Then I scratched off a bit of the bark with my fingernail and handed it back to her. Smelling that, she became wild, much wilder than with catnip, and her nose began to run. I was hugely entertained to see her bite and rub and grab at it so frenetically.
Whether she was experiencing euphoria or not, I couldn’t say, but I certainly was enjoying myself. If you want to get your cat something for Christmas, perhaps silvervine is a good candidate, like a novelty gift; I found mine on Etsy.
The best theory as to why cats like catnip, and similar plants, is that the chemicals ward off insect pests. The cat’s innate desire to freak the plant is effective in spreading that chemical through the air and through their fur as they roll, rub, and frisk the leaves – bug spray. Lions and tigers also exhibit this behavior.
Some people also say that the plants give cats “stress relief,” which I think is funny, to imagine a cat having money problems, and seeking relief from their cat woes.
The “nip” of catnip is not a nip of drink, by the way, nor nip of cold, nor to pinch or bite, but its own selfsame meaning through the ages: “nip” being the corrupted Latin “nepeta,” which means, simply, “the plants that draw cats.” The “cat” part of “catnip” being, then, redundant.
The original etymology of nepeta – exactly why this sound, these letters, should refer to the mint-like plants which attract cats – is unknown.
It is like other words so core to human experience through history that the origin is a mystery, the sound complete unto itself. Other words in this category: girl, boy, dog, cat.
So as another year comes to its close, the sun and earth swinging on their paths, you and your cat continue the march of history, the evolution of cats and of language, frisking through time and before time, the nip with no beginning and no end.
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hillary