i was curious why my cat was flipping out when she’d smell the faintest scent of an olive on my finger tips so i was searching online about it when i came across your column on cats and catnip. the reader that asked you about catnip and olives doesnt have the only cat in the world to flip out over olives! and when doing an ‘ask jeeves’ there are a couple more out there. my cat seems to get more ‘high’ off of olives than catnip. it’s crazy. yet i still cant find an explanation why. hmmmph.
just thought i’d comment.
thanks.
And who doesn’t love a good olive?
i read that article… that’s why i posted.
have you seen a cat interact with an olive? it ain’t natural, it ain’t simply hunger.
it’s like… a woman at a 2 for 1 shoe sale. craziness.
Sorry. I knew you’d read that article. I put it up for other people who may not have, for reference.
Personally, cats scare me. I avoid them, and they avoid me.
Of the several cats I have had over the years only one loved olives, but he made up for all the rest. He would practically attack for one, and when he got it, he would hook one claw in it and eat it off his paw. All the rest, if given one, considered it a somewhat salty toy to roll around the floor.
lol, ok achernar. thank you.
I like cats. They taste just like chicken.
I have a cat who enthusiastically licks plastic bags or plastic wrap whenever she finds them left out. I’ve heard that this is because beef products are used as part of the manufacturing process, but none of the other cats seem interested.
I know of another cat that goes nuts over raspberry-flavored gummy candies, but only a certain brand. Trying to explain cats is a lost cause.
Our cat licks the TV screen when it’s on (“Tastes like ouchy!”). So, yea, I’m with stoyel. We’ll be able to walk to Pluto before we’ll ever understand cats.
Now I have to try this . I am heading to the fridge right now…
O.k. that’s wierd, he got a wiff of it and bolted under the bed. He hasn’t hid under the bed since I first got him. hummm, I think I’ll stick to the cat nip. Crazy cats.
My cat went mad over olive stones, when I was eating olives and putting the stones in a bowl next to me, she couldn’t leave them alone, sucking and chewing and trying to munch them.
I had one cat that went crazy over the “pimento” filling in cheap stuff olives. Catnip crazy, not hunger.
We have a cat that will beg for and eat the strangest stuff. Last night she expressed interest in a habanero-stuffed olive, licked some of the juice. With enthusiasm, she has eaten dried pineapple, dried apricots, oatmeal-raisin cookies (she follows us around for these), orange, and sauerkraut. She will not eat chocolate in any form.
From the above-mentioned column:
Not my (former) cat. I tried him on catnip once and he just took a casual sniff at it and strode off in that supercilious manner that cats have. Was he the only catnip-resistant cat around? Or did the dealer stitch me up with some fake 'nip?
I never tried olives, by the way.
Some cats like catnip and some don’t. Of our four, two go absolutely insane over the stuff, one rolls around on it for a minute or so and then goes to sleep and the other ignores it completely (and looks incredulously at the other’s antics).
Two of these were part-feral, from the Cat’s Protection League (UK) and the only time they behave like normal domestic cats is when there’s catnip (or catnip spray) around.
And now I’m off home to try the olive test!
J.