Here in the Monkey household, we’ve been saving soap slivers for a long while now, supposedly to give them to one of my mother’s friends, who will then take them to her church and melt them down into soap for folks too poor to buy soap. Usually, the big bag of spent soap lives under the bathroom sink, but we’ve recently moved it to the living room, from whence it will eventually be turned over to my mother’s friend.
My kitty, Mayhem, discovered the bag o’ soap soon after it was moved into public, and promptly fell in love. No greater effect could it have if it were a bag of catnip–she sits near the bag, rubs on it, rolls around on it, and generally has a fine time enjoying herself in thoroughly feline ways. This may or may not be connected to her love of people fresh out of the bath; while she’s not a generally affectionate cat with people other than me, freshly bathed folk seem to trigger rolling and rubbing.
So does anyone else have a similar experience? I’m kinda curious what it might be about soap that’s getting her going…
When we first got Dewey, he got ahold of a five pound sack of potatoes and dragged it all around the house with him. That’s before we got Eddles to be his companion. Perhaps your cat is lonely.
One of my cats really digs Comet. I can’t even let it sit in the sink to work on the stains, because she wants to roll in it. Once I rinse it down the drain, she rolls around in the residual aroma.
We have two soap lovers. One is mine and the other is my boyfriends.
Penelope is our bathroom dweller. She spends the majority of her time in there and is in there almost every time I take a shower. She runs over to me as soon as the curtain is pulled back. She rubs all over my legs and attacks my towel. She then jumps in the shower and rubs and licks the shower walls.
Uno is my BF soap kitty. He does not like her in the bathroom when he is in the shower so she paws and crys outside the door. As soon as it is open she must rub all over his legs and feet.
I am sure a bag of soap slivers would drive both of them into a soap smelling frenzy.
We have to lock up the Irish Spring at our house.
One of our cats, Arlene (14 years old), has fallen in love with the stuff.
It is not safe to leave it out where she can get to it. When we use it, she will track us down, and rub herself all over our exposed skin.
She acts like it’s catnip, or something.
It makes her VERY happy.
She may be senile.
My Molly loves bleach. If I’ve been cleaning with bleach, no matter how I wash/rinse/wash/rinse my hands, she will still smell it,and rub, lick and nibble my hands until I make her stop. She likes soap, too, but not as much.
Cookie Monster adores bleach too. She goes crazy when we clean the toilet, so we have to lock her out of the room for about two hours afterwards. I swear she’d drink it if she could.
Wow–and here I thought this was just my own crazy kitty. We’ve got another cat in the household here, and she shows no interest in the soap at all. I’m glad it’s just soap, not bleach or comet, though.
Oh, and a picture of Mayhem herself. I wanted one of her on the soap, but she wouldn’t cooperate.
I don’t think she’s senile. My kitty Miss-Miss loves Irish Spring to the point of almost eating it. I have to watch her to keep her from doing that, but I love the way she smells after indulging in the rolling and basking process.
