Every year at Christmas I make catnip mice for all the cats of my acquaintance, or in some cases, for the cats of my acquaintances. In any event, the nip has always worked in the past, so this year I was a little surprised when the two test mice I made for my own cats elicited no reaction whatsoever. We had to make them take the mice. They poked them a little and one cat endeavored to at least try to act interested, but overall, the mice were a resounding failure. I blame the nip.
The catnip I used advertised joyous rapture for kitties on its label, but it was commercially grown nip sold in plastic bags, so I knew it wasn’t going to be great. But judging from my cats’ less than tepid reaction, it may as well have been parsley.
I know I can just stuff mice with anything and give them away as cat toys — the owners of the cats won’t be any the wiser. But the cats will know, and I feel it’s kind of a tease to give them what they know should be catnip, when it doesn’t really have any in it.
I used to grow my own, when I had a garden in a field away from house cats, and that was easily the most successful catnip ever. Cats in my neighborhood would sneak into our house to steal it when we weren’t looking, to the consternation of our own cats. But we can’t grow catnip where we live now because the cats all find it and roll in it until the plant dies.
So there you are. Unless I get lucky and my store of last resort comes through, a whole dozen cats will be nipless this year. Does anyone know of a good source of real catnip that a person could buy for their feline friends? If so, I’d love to know about it. Meanwhile, I have ten empty mice (with red curly tails!) waiting to be stuffed…
Good Nip
I buy it by the pound from San Francisco Herb Co. It’s $10.95 a pound and Beest goes nuts for it. You’re welcome to take some when I see you, to fill those empty meeses.
Thank you!
You are so great. I should have known you would have some for Beest, who was already on the list for a Christmas mouse. 😉
my last bag of catnip from the store had no expiration date...
but it evidently had died a long time ago! catnip often grows wild and when i brought some home, my cats always found it. have you ever tried to grow it from a nursury plant or from seed? i had to put a cylinder of hardware cloth around my plant to keep the cats from rolling and chewing it to death.