Monday, September 8, 2008

Cat Nip fun

I have never planted Cat Nip before but thought since I have two cats, I would give it a try. I had no idea that cat nip had such pretty blooms until seeing it bloom this summer.
My Cheetah found it very interesting. As soon as I brought the nip inside, she came running. I guess the smell is that enticing to a cat.
She had this strange look on her face and laid those ears back and was in cat heaven while I let her get a snoot full.
It did not take long for Sheba to join in on the sniffy bit of fun. I feel bad that my girls cannot play in the yard by my side as I play in the garden. But life is more safe for a fur baby being inside away from such things as coyotes, cars and dogs. Not to mention, my birds appreciate that!
My two little black fur-balls,with their recent hair cuts, were nibbling on the nip and rolling all over the floor afterwards. I did not let them have it for too long as I did not want them to eat it then barf it up for me to clean. Ah, the joys of cat ownership! I let the Nip dry out and then I crunch it up into a sock for them. Cheetah will toss and chew on the sock for hours while Sheba bores of it within a few minutes.

I like to bring the outside inside for my furry ones at times. This way my girls are able to have a bit of CAT NIP FUN, while not, In the Garden...

30 comments:

  1. What a beautiful flower Catnip has Skeeter. My cat adores Catnip & it looks like yours have the same reaction. lol :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is so nice to bring your garden inside! Isn't wonderful that everybody can get something from the garden?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cute kitties, ah, they look familiar. It is said to keep kitties from using the veggie patch, plant catnip in a away area!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sure looks like they are having a great time! Cute cats.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cute kitties! I've never tried growing catnip before, but I do have some catmint, which is not supposed to attract cats--wrong! It doesn't have the same effect as catnip, but my outdoor cats still love to roll around in it. (Coyotes wouldn't dare show their face close to our house!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. That was a good idea to bring it inside for your two girls. They look very, very happy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. i grew catnip in fl and it always got shredded by the local outdoor cats. i am sure your cats appreciate having such a great treat.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Tina,

    The joys of kitties! When you visit, you'll see all my furniture has been covered to protect it from the Barfinator...Coal! I miss having a garden cat...we have too much traffic and coyotes so the kitty is safely inside when I am out! he's very unhappy about it!

    Btw, it is good that you couldn't make it last Friday, I (and the Mr) have some kind of nasty head cold!

    Gail

    ReplyDelete
  9. The cuties are having lotsa fun. I don't think I have ever seen catnip in bloom but it sure is pretty, just might have to try some. A couple of years ago I bought a catnip pillow for my cat for Christmas and she tore into the closed bag it was in and everywhere else I put it so had to put it in a closed closet till time to wrap it and put under all the other presents.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good Monday morning to everyone in Blogger land!

    PGL, My Cheetah seems to enjoy the nippy treat a bit more then Sheba. I think it has a different effect on each cat. My Skeeter was not that big into nip but Cheetah really goes nuts for it...

    Gisele, My girls are deprived of the outdoors so what ever I can do to make their day a bit more fun and exciting to keep them happy is the way to go....

    Dawn, I have the nip in the flower garden and wonder if that is why the cat from next door keeps coming into the garden. If only she would get more moles, less birds and stop using my pine straw as a liter box, then I would be happy...

    Dave, My kitties are fun loving playful cats. I am lucky as some cats personalities are geared more towards napping then interacting with humans...

    Rose, I planted CatMint for the first time this year! It was looking really badly with this drought so I took them out of the ground and put them into pots and they once again look great! I have not seen a coyote in our yard in some time now but I know they are around as I hear them when the windows are open at night. Open windows should occur in a few weeks or so as the temps should start to fall soon...

    Tina, I do have happy fur babies! I try to let them indulge in the outdoors by bringing in a thing or two for them to enjoy. Nip is the way to go. So far, they have not barfed any of the nip up so I reckon it is okay for them to nibble...

    Marmee, I dont see where the kitty next door has shredded any of my nip in the garden so I am guessing, it may not have a great effect on her or she is too busy chasing the birds, arggg, bad kitty...

    Gail, the Barfinator, too funny...I love that term and may I use it in the future? Cheetah has no desires to go outside as she was still a kitten when Sheba dragged her out of the woods and into my life. Sheba was the wild cat living in the woods being her mommy so she has the desires to go back into the woods and be a wild cat and hunt. It took her over a year to accept that she would no longer be that wild cat hunting for her next meal. They are now safe inside my house with food always available and a clean home to call their Castle. She is the queen ya know. LOL...

    The Saint is dealing with a nasty head cold as well. He brought it back to GA from TN last weekend and hopefully, I will not have it next. I am keeping my distant from his cooties....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Morning Jean, you got in here before I could get all responses out... That is funny about the kitty finding the gift before Christmas time. Our family pet dog Molly would find her wrapped gift under the tree every year before time! Back in those days pet toys were limited so basically those little squeeze squeaky toys or a ball. They must have all been made with the same materials as she would sniff them out every time! We would wrap the same gift over and over again… Good sniffers those animals...

    ReplyDelete
  12. How nice for the fur babies to get an outside treat. They are adorable!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Cindy, Thanks, We think our fur babies are adorable too and they keep us laughing daily with their fun loving ways. I could not imagine my life without animals in it…

    ReplyDelete
  14. There are a lot more varieties of catnip and catmint than I was aware of; generally catnip flowers are just white. Do you happen to know what cultivar you grew? (I like to keep track!)
    ~ Monica

    ReplyDelete
  15. My cats are not interested in nepeta (catnip) but love the plain old wild spearmint. They eat it fresh and sometimes lay down ontop of the leaves. I've never seen them get excited and actually play with it.
    Marnie

    ReplyDelete
  16. I don't know any other people that can say they actually grow fresh catnip for their furry babies! What a wonderful idea!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Aww, finally i get to see your adorable girls near each other. Little Luka could be their sister. I'd love to grow catnip if Luka likes it, but I don't think it does anything for her. She just walks away from it, lol. But the catnip has pretty blooms!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Gail, It was rainy too. We were pushing it to get home in time. The Home Show was awesome. We had fun but wished we could've stayed longer. For lunch we did Arnolds. Have you ever been there? Excellent, excellent food. While we sat there I am sure they pushed thru 150 people in such an organized manner and very happy people. I'll come another time. Hope you and hubby get well.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Garden Faerie, I just got a packet of seed and threw them in the planter! The packet only said Cat Nip...

    Mother Nature, we do have a little bit of fun around here at times... lol...

    Marnie, I am finding out that cats do not react the same with the nip. Some goes crazy as my Cheetah and some such as Sheba, just kind of nibble it then move on. I did not know cats would like spearmint, I hear some critters such as moles do not like that smell. I have heard to put spearmint gum in their holes to deter them. Yep, I tried it but still have moles...

    Randy and Jamie, If you only knew half the things we do for our fur babies, you would think we are nuts! Okay, you would know we ARE nuts! lol...

    DP, My Cheetah goes nuts for the fresh or the dried in toys. Sheba could really care less so cats react differently to it. I just tossed seeds in a planter and it grew like crazy so you may want to toss a few seeds next spring and see what happens. Yep, my babies do look like Luka with their fur cuts. They normally have long hair as they seem to have Turkish Angora in them but with fur cuts, they do look like Luka. Luka is still young so she may have longer hair in time…

    Speaking of food Tina, it is time for me to get some dinner going. My Saint will be home soon and probably ready to chow down.

    Gail… Yep, get well soon Gail and hubby. I was a bad bud and did not mention that beforehand. Slap, Okay I smacked my hand so forgive me....

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi Skeeter, I have had a busy day fooling with blog feeds and the like. yuck. Your girls are so beautiful. Did you say that you cut their hair? Do you do it yourself? My hazel, the hair shedding machine could benefit from that but she would have to be sedated, she is a little jumpy! LOL We have catnip that attracts various neighborhood strays. It seeds all over the place too, in some weird spots where you wouldn't think anything could grow. I do let it set seed then pull the plant, put it in a paper bag and let it dry in the shed for cat toys and general cat treats in the winter, a sprig or two keeps them happy.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Frances, I post on a Pet People Blog (hometown newspaper) also and forget that I dont pass along all my pet info here. So I assumed everyone knew that we clip the cats and do the task ourselves. Yep, we are brave souls. I have the kitties trained pretty good as I spend a lot of time with them but we do struggle a bit with the fur cuts. The Saint and I take one weekend day and share in this fur flying fun! I like a clean hair free house and it keeps them healthier also with less fur balls being hacked up from hair in the tummy. It is a win win task for us but has to be repeated about every 3 months or so. They do grow that hair quickly!

    I saw your Hazel in a recent posting and made the comment how she could pass for Cheetahs sibling. Her fur gets that long and flies all over the house. It is also thick and difficult to clip if we allow it to grow too long. Sheba's fur is not as dense so not as difficult to clip but she is a little scrapper and puts up a fight. We close off the sunroom and start on one girl until she wiggles away from us then we start on the other one until she wiggles away from us then we grab the other one again and repeat until the job is complete. It usually takes us about 2 hours or so to get them clipped. Needless to say our arms and bodies are sore after all that cat wiggling fun... lol.... If you ever try clipping Hazel yourself, take a little advice, clip the claws first! Live and Learn…

    ReplyDelete
  22. Tina, the nanner tree is planted! Hot and humid as heck but she is planted. Calling for 50% chance of rain the next few days so maybe, just maybe we will get some moisture but with the way our luck has been lately we will probably be in the 50% which does NOT have rain on our yard... argggg....

    ReplyDelete
  23. Pretty babies--looks like they are having fun. I had some spearmint in the yard one time & it did help keep moles away. I think I need to plant some more but where it won't get cut by mower.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Well, Lola if the spearmint will get rid of moles, then I must plant it all over the yard as that little stinker has been busy. I found tunnels all over the grassy areas and we thought we had a grip on the grassy areas of the yard. Reckon that little buggar has eaten all the grubs in the pine straw areas of the yard and is now moving into the grass for them. Argggg.... I wish the cat next door would earn her pooping in the pine straw rights by doing mole patrol…..

    Legs itching from mosquito bites while in the yard. I was working into the dark hours and that is a no no or mosquitoes will get cha…. They have not been an issue for us with little rain but now that we had some rain a few weeks ago, they are hatching and arg, they are a pain in the butt…

    Night all…

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi Skeeter, cats playing with catnip are so much fun to watch! I don't have cats now, but when I did they liked catnip and catmint as well. Your catnip has a pretty little flower.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Garden Girl, I did not know cat nip had a bloom until I planted it this year. This was my first go at planting nip and now it will become a spring ritual to toss a few seeds of nip for the girls...

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hi Skeeter- I really hope Luka's hair doesn't get longer, lol. I like her having short hair and not shedding everywhere, but I'll take what comes. :-) I do brush her a lot, so the extra hair does come off in her brush.

    ReplyDelete
  28. When our girls fur was long we brushed it also. They like getting brushed! But boy, they had a lot of hair. It still got everywhere! arggg...

    ReplyDelete

ALL SPAM WILL BE PROMPTLY FRIED. PLEASE DO NOT LIFT PHOTOS OR WORDS. THANKS!