About five months ago, I adopted a semi feral three-year-old kitty from the sanctuary where I volunteer. Mocha has never quite understood the purpose of scratching posts and much prefers my area rugs. One of the many things I tried initially to lure her to her scratching posts was catnip. She showed absolutely no reaction to it. It’s like it wasn’t there. So then I tried silvervine. Same result...or lack of result. Huh, I thought. She’s one of those cats who’s immune to the stuff.
Last week, I noticed her loving on a homemade sock toy. I had just refreshed the silvervine on it for one of the other cats. Mocha had never shown much interest in it. Hmmmm. Today I put catnip on a couple of scratching posts and silvervine on another. She just now visited two of them and began to rub and scratch all over them!
She’s come so far in the past five months in terms of her socialization. She actually voluntarily stood on my lap this week for the first time, and she has begun to sleep up against me at night. She asks for attention and doesn’t flinch and scuttle away as much.
Do you think that socialization may play a role in how a cat reacts to catnip? It certainly seems to be the case for Mocha. Cats are so endlessly fascinating!
Last week, I noticed her loving on a homemade sock toy. I had just refreshed the silvervine on it for one of the other cats. Mocha had never shown much interest in it. Hmmmm. Today I put catnip on a couple of scratching posts and silvervine on another. She just now visited two of them and began to rub and scratch all over them!
She’s come so far in the past five months in terms of her socialization. She actually voluntarily stood on my lap this week for the first time, and she has begun to sleep up against me at night. She asks for attention and doesn’t flinch and scuttle away as much.
Do you think that socialization may play a role in how a cat reacts to catnip? It certainly seems to be the case for Mocha. Cats are so endlessly fascinating!