Purrchance To Dream

Showing posts with label Catmint. Show all posts

Since we've been in Florida, NTM has been growing some cat grass for us out in the front courtyard of our new house. We don't get to go out there (there are two kitties from next door who get to be out there but not us!), but NTM has some flowers there and he grows us some cat grass to nom on inside.

He doesn't like the mess we make on the sisal rug, but we sure love that grass!

NTM wants to know if any of our blogger friends have any catnip or catmint seeds out there that they could send us - he wants to try growing some of those for us, too! If you do, we can send you our snail mail address. Our email address is Purr2Dream at gmail.com.

Thanks! Now to get back to nomming some grass!

Nom Nom Nom

The Purries

This week, we got a special gift in the mail: some fresh vacuum-sealed cat mint.

It was a gift for Spooker, but she reluctantly shared it with the other Purries.Here are some cat mint action shots. Chloe and Daphne rolling in the 'mint:

Bella braves the bed (and Spooker's wrath) to roll in the cat mint (those are Daphne's legs on the right):

Daphne rolls in the 'mint. Chloe is chewing on some, and Spooker is stretching out, enjoying the buzz:

And in the living room, I rubbed some of the cat mint onto a 'nip cigar. Pete decided that worked just right:

As for the rest of the Purries: Little Isis grabbed a leaf of the cat mint and zipped under the bed lickety-split so I couldn't get a photo of her, Jack just wondered what all the fuss was about, and Jazper - who is the world's biggest 'nip head - well, it turns out he could care less about cat mint. So he got a favorite toy that was rolled in some dried 'nip.
Thanks again to Laure from The Misadventures of Me for sending us the lovely cat mint in the mail!
Cheers,
NTM

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Yesterday, we told you about how Spooker got some cat mint in the mail, and we talked about how she loves it even more than cat nip.
Here is Spooker, right after having taken her bit of cat mint and curling up inside the waist band of my gardening jeans. Like a squirrel saving a nut for later, Spooker preferred to have her cat mint time alone, after the camera was put away.

But I still grabbed a pic of her after she enjoyed her cat mint. This is some seriously psychedelic stuff!

Tomorrow: we see how other Purries reacted to the cat mint gift.
Cheers,
NTM

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Spooker loves cat mint like many cats love cat nip.
What's the difference?
Cat nip is an annual, tall and lanky, with tiny white blossoms. It can freely reseed itself, and the same patch may act like a perennial.
The essential oil that many cats love is spread throughout the plant. The oils dry well in cat nip, and most of the 'nip cats use is in dried cat nip form. Here's a link to a picture of blooming cat nip:

http://www.goldmountainherbfarm.com/PP/PPimages/catnip.jpg
Cat mint is a tough perennial, more bushy and with true-blue blossoms, often used in the landscape trade as a border plant. Here's a link to a picture of blooming cat mint:
http://www.youcanlearnseries.com/Landscape/Images/Catmint.jpg
The essential oil in cat mint is not as strong as in cat nip, and greatest potency can be found in the emerging leaves at the tip of the stalk, especially right before the plant blossoms. The oils in cat mint don't dry well, and fresh cat mint doesn't have a great effect on some cats, while on others, like Spooker, they prefer the 'mint over the 'nit when it comes to cat herbs. She not only loves to roll around on the leaves, she will eat them.Today in the mail, Spooker got a special gift: our friend Laure from The Misadventures of Me sent her a food storage system sealed packet of cat mint: