Just for the hell of it, this is what spider-webs look like when the little buggers have been dosed with different illegal drugs.
One of my furbabies, Sugar Magnolia, loves beer. When Mr. SCL had one open he has to guard it from her, because she will knock it over to drink it.
Catnip is a stimulant, supposedly similar to cocaine for humans. Not at all stony or impairing–if anything, stimulants will make one more alert, which is a Good Thing for a highly instinctual animal like a cat. Cocaine is mildy psychedelic if it’s really potent stuff–supposedly, catnip is, too, and has this effect on humans when added to a bowl of pipe tobacco (Google it yourself; I no longer post drug links here)–but not “trippy” in a visual way, or in any way that would change perception or make the differentiation of reality from fantasy difficult.
Basically, catnip is a COMPLETELY different drug.
FWIW, back when I was the drug-smoking type I had friends who got their dogs high (with second-hand smoke) all the time. Dogs dig it–they eat a lot and then veg out. One of my friends got his cat high once, and the cat hated it and was pretty much freaked out. Then again, some humans have bad trips with weed too. I had one friend in college who would have us get his iguana stoned. I got his iguana stoned at a party once–the iguana had a great time.
I also have an aunt whose cat loved coffee. He would try to get at any cup of coffee on the table, and finally they gave up and started giving him coffee in a bowl. He lived a long, healthy and caffeinated life.
I don’t think I ever tried to get my cat high. Mostly because I usually smoked outdoors, where the cat wasn’t. But there was a little while when I would smoke indoors and the cat would be around–never really occured to me, probably because of my friend whose cat had a bad trip.
I used to use peanut butter. I’d get a dollop on a spoon, about the size of a marble, and stick the pill into it. My old mutt would lick it right up, never noticing the pill. She hated pills too; I tried many different solutions before I discovered the peanut butter trick.
And by the way, Lissa, my wife’s nickname is Lissa and she has a cat named Bean. Weird.
Illuminati!
For some reason, I found something sad about that. . .like the poor spider on caffeine just spinning and spinning and thinking, “fuck, why can’t get this right?”
FWIW, my one dog loves all alcohol. It started with eggnog. He’s had wine, beer, whiskey, you name it. Also, he’ll eat coffee beans whole, and come back for more.
But, he’s never been intoxicated. I think he just likes the taste.
Wasn’t there an elephant in India that learned to like the taste of alcohol, and even broke out of his pen to get to some? And then drank it all?
A friend had a dog that got really freaked out by storms. Her solution was to give him melatonin (OTC herbal sleep aid) about a half hour before the storm hit, and he’d snooze right on through. Driving home to Virginny from Indiana yesterday, I gave mine a Benadryl for the sleepy effect.
I also know of several dogs that were boozehounds, BTW.
My buddy had a cat who loved pot. If anyone smoked a joint, the cat would come up, they’d blow some smoke in its face, and after one hit it’d go and lie down. It wouldn’t leave you alone til it got one hit though.
(For the record, this all happened before I met my friend. he just told me about it. I WISH I had been there to witness this, because it sounds pretty damn funny. Heh. My cats, for some reason, won’t come anywhere near someone when they’re smoking…)
Everyone who knows me used to be able to tell when I trimmed my cat’s claws, since my arms and hands would be all scratched up. My brother recommended wrapping him in a towel. Not too tightly, but just enough to let him know that he’s not going to get away very easily. After a few minutes, he kind of gives up and lets me do what what I have to do (not without LOUD protests).
My dressmaker was telling me the other day that she’d tried Valium for her dog who hates storms - and it worked well.