BJ's First Catnip!

When shopping for groceries Saturday, Gideon and I stopped by the pet section of the store to buy some more cat litter for BJ. I was on my way out of the aisle when Gideon stopped me and pointed at the catnip. "Has BJ ever had catnip?" he asked. I couldn't remember an instance of any of my pets using catnip (a call to my mother later on in the evening confirmed this) so I was kind of wary.

"Are you sure that would be okay?" I asked.

Gideon encouraged the catnip, telling me that it makes some cats crazy manic (Gary Busey cats) and others super calm (Willie Nelson cats). I agreed to the purchase, mostly because the catnip mice were only $1.50 but also because I didn't want to always be the bad cop parent. See, BJ likes to whine about being hungry at three p.m. even though he knows he gets wet food at six p.m. when Gideon and I eat. (He has dry food out at all times, but he eats the middle part of his bowl until it's empty and then assumes that there's no food left even though he'd just have to nudge it down with his paw. He is so spoiled.) Gideon responds to BJ's meows by looking at me and saying, "Well, I could get you a wet food but Sam doesn't want you to have any." BJ continues whining and I am unmoved as always.

Still, I don't always want to be the cat parent denying luxuries. Of course I bought him the catnip. We got home and Gideon tried to entice BJ with the catnip mice, but BJ didn't pay much attention to it. We left the mice in the spare room and ate dinner in the kitchen. I suspect BJ waited for us to leave the room before drugging up because he didn't want us to know what he was doing.  You can call me a crazy cat owner for thinking this, but BJ does often hide from us when he becomes ashamed of something. He was especially embarrassed that time we walked in on him watching porn. (Just to clarify, that did not happen. I am not delusional enough to think that my cat is a person.)

I walked back to the bathroom and saw BJ rolling around with the catnip mouse, burying his head in the tiny toy. He saw me and sprinted from the room, becoming one of those Gary Busey cats Gideon had told me about. Then, unexpectedly, he morphed into a Willie Nelson cat. Gideon took a photo of me holding him during this state, which looks like the still from a stoner cat movie. (Dude, Where's My Cat - the tale of a crazy blonde woman who abducts an innocent adorable yellow cat and forces catnip on him until he is too comfortable to leave. This is definitely not based on a true story. I swear. Though I probably would catnap BJ if I found him with another owner, because we are definitely meant to be together.)

So the verdict on catnip? One out of one BJ's give it two un-opposable thumbs up. Gideon and I were too busy taking photos and laughing to form an opinion on it.