Simba our scaredy cat, paranoid cat, frightened of his own shadow cat...well I'm sitting here this morning reading away on the computer and I hear this loud sound behind me. I look and there he is on my dresser where he has knocked a sealed container of catnip off my dresser and onto the floor. Now, that container has been there since February untouched (and under a lot of junk). He jumped to the floor when I turned around and began playing with it. I opened it and dumped some on the floor. He's been rolling in it for half an hour. The other cats are looking at him like...you dork!

I keep a little bag of catnip in the kitchen cabinet.Well i heard a noise one night.I go upstairs and see the cabinet doors both open,and the catnip laying in the floor-holes poked all over the bag..LOL
Now that my older cat Felix knows where i keep his "stash"he does this quite often!
For about 3 weeks we had the momma of the 2 kittens we now have.
When i gave her catnip.She got VERY aggresive!!I had never seen anything like it.My other cat always runs and plays ,then he will lay down and chill out.
She was just downright mean!!! I gave it to her twice and both times the same reaction!!

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I have 3 cats, and they all know exactly where the catnip is, and when I get it out they all run to "their spots" on the kitchen floor and wait for me to give them each a little pinch of it.

And then they go nuts!!!

I grow it in pots in the garden too and dry my own

as you can imagine, we have a lot of visiting neighborhood cats
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tho my bunch are VERY protective of their nip and like to lie in the sun right around it all day

When I was young and single we had the cutest off duty cop working at our bank. Oh how we all flirted with him. He came by to visit one night...lololol and I had my little tray where I cut my blood pressure pills in half with a razor blade and a baggie of catnip sitting on the table. It was so funny. He was like...uh Julie, do I need to test these???? I was laughing so hard saying "it's catnip, please trust me!"

along without catnip.

For our oldest girl, it is a pain reliever. I buy pots of fresh herb each spring
at the plant nurseries. We do get it on our property, but it is fugitive..and often suddenly disappears. So I buy fresh each season just in case. That picture I posted on Kell's kitten thread has Oreo sitting on my potting table with this season's new catnip. She looks pretty mellow because of IT I think.
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You can see it in that pic behind her.

Our oldest girl will smash a pot of it down in no time!

All three of our cats love it in different ways. I also pinch it back when we leave
for vacation--- a long car trip for them--- and put it in their cages. I take some up there each summer, as the soil base there seems to refuse my attempts to naturalize it. Must be a pH thing or something. It seems to settle them down, and the howling/crying is minimized. We use the dried herb, Cosmic Catnip is a good brand, over the winter.

You know I've met people who think this is decadent and immoral even.
My husband's cousin who is a nurse of all people, will not give her cat --cat nip.
People think this is a DRUG like MJ is..and therefore should be withheld. I don't see it that way at all.

Here is a funny story: One summer this disbelieving cousin, came to me and was upset that her cat had "disappeared" in the house/cabin area and wouldn't come out. (It was the first season she had brought her up there..an island that is very wild and different from the city). Losing a cat up there --going feral--can be a terrible thing. So I pinched off some fresh catnip --amidst protestations-- and followed her down the path. We got to her cabin, and I pointed out that all the DOGS over the years there had to have left scent. No cats had ever been in her house--so her cat may be afraid a DOG will show up! So I sat on the couch, and put my hand over the side casually and started bruising the leaves letting the aroma out. (this is how I give it to our girls). Keeping our tone low, and not calling her or anything, I just sat there and we talked for a while. All of a sudden I detected movement out of the corner of my eye, down there where I held the catnip. Her kittie had snuck out of her hidey hole, and slowly was advancing on me, and all of a sudden she snatched the herb right out of my hand and disappeared again! It was so funny! So I knew she'd be okay. (she was over 10 yrs old then, and I bet had never had or experienced this treat!)

This cousin thought catnip is like LSD for cats! Hence evil.
I think catnip is a tonic, and helps them feel better. Kittens often do not respond to it, and some adult cats do act strangely when exposed to it. Our cats love to eat it fresh..and I think it helps with digestion and hair balls for them too. People you know consume catnip..it is common in the South, and considered a carminative. Here is a fascinating website:

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My son's hyper second kittie is just leaving kittenhood, and she does not respond much to catnip..the fresh type...yet. I'll try her next spring and see if she is "resistant"?
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That is so funny, Julie .. about your policeman friend. Back in the 60's I knew a gal who was detained at the border between Canada and NY, because of catnip in a baggie. They thought it was "you know what" LOL. She was put in jail until the tests came back. Makes for an interesting story these days, but at the time it freaked her out!
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I enjoyed reading your post MrsD
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one of our holistic practitioners has my son on a blend of catnip, peppermint and pau d'arco tea which really helps him when he has any Crohn's spasms.

Me too Mrs D.
My husband aslo feels this way about catnip!
He used to say .Your mom is getting Felix high
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So silly!!!