Catnip Overdose

Earlier today, Lena’s dream came true: I spilled too much catnip on the floor. We were outside and Lena was rolling around on a square of cement that I think is meant for a grill. That gave me the idea of giving her some catnip and when I opened the tub, instead of giving her the usual amount, I accidentally dumped most of the catnip on the ground. I tried scooping it up before she got into it, but it was too late. Lena was lying on the bed of catnip and her fur was covered. I still scooped what I could back into the tub, but most of Lena was coated in the stuff. So I let her enjoy the moment and watched her while she rolled around on the ground. I also took a few pictures, but since I’m only halfway through that roll I won’t have them for at least a few days. I called Tim out to see Lena and afterwards I tried to brush the catnip off her fur. Bad idea—she started attacking me. She generally gets aggressive when she’s on catnip, but this time she was under the influence of a lot more catnip than usual, so she was not letting me clean her up. I didn’t want her in the house with that much catnip on her fur so I ran inside to get her new Kong cat brush (which, by the way, is the best cat brush I’ve ever had). I brushed off what catnip remained on her fur and eventually she went back in the house. The rest of the spilled catnip is still outside for her next outdoor adventure.

And speaking of outdoor adventures, last night was the first time I let Lena out in the evening. Tim and I had just bought and assembled a picnic table for the backyard, and we had also discovered that Sam’s Club sells liquor quite cheap. So we stocked up for our new liquor cabinet, which we received as a joint gift from my mother and some friends. We decided to enjoy the fact that in Phoenix you can sit outdoors in the evening in early February and made up some drinks. We had some music playing inside so we had the door partly open and Lena decided to see what was going on. At first I was a worried about letting her out in the evening, but Lena knows where her food is and wasn’t going to stray far. I still made sure she stayed in the lit parts of the backyard. She did her usual sniffing and walking around and then got into her nighttime crazy mode and started digging in the small stones that cover our backyard. She dug several shallow holes and was pouncing on imaginary things and finally squatted over on of the holes. I thought she was going to go to the bathroom but just then something startled her and she didn’t. Eventually she went back inside and it was there that I realized she had orange paws from all her digging around. Even today her paws aren’t back to their usual white color but they’re cleaner at least. Lena’s having way too much fun in Arizona!