Insane cats

Liquid Fire · Post by **Liquid Fire** » Thu May 26, 2005 9:26 pm

There is a spot of bird feces on my back porch.

This is not a rare occurance. There are many back there. This particular spot is not even the largest one. But there is something special about it...

A few weeks ago, I noticed some odd behavior from one of my two cats. Whenever I let her out on the back porch, she would head immediately to this small, white, dried bird turd. Upon arrival, she would roll and frolick in it as if it were catnip. It would have been extremely cute, had it not been a piece of excrement. I figured since she's getting old and starting to go crazy/lose her sight/pee all over the place, this must be some wierd thing related to her insanity.

I was proven wrong.

Today, I let my other cat out onto the porch. This cat is relatively young. He is far from insane and is normally not prone to creepy behavior. He wandered around, tried to get into my glass of milk, then perked up and headed over to the feces. Since the time my other cat first did it, I've had multiple rainstorms. The turd is now nothing more than a stain. He not only rolled in it, but started to lick it. I immediately ran over and grabbed him, because I thought it would not be worth the trip down to the vet to pull splinters out of his tongue. Afterwards, I bent down to smell it, but could only detect the faint whiff of moist wood.

Why would my cats do this? Is there something about certain birds that cats just like? Or have the birds taken a liking to catnip?

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Thu May 26, 2005 9:55 pm

Liquid Fire wrote:There is a spot of bird feces on my back deck.

This is not a rare occurance. There are many back there. This particular spot is not even the largest one. But there is something special about it...

I read this as "There is a spot of bird feces on the back of my neck..." and just stopped right there.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Thu May 26, 2005 10:04 pm

rofl, so did I.

I've never seen a cat do that.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Thu May 26, 2005 10:31 pm

x3 read it that way, perhaps he should rephrase it.

Liquid Fire · Post by **Liquid Fire** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:35 pm

Changed to back porch, for all those who can't tell a D from an N...

Xamindar · Post by **Xamindar** » Fri May 27, 2005 12:47 am

DCrazy wrote:
Liquid Fire wrote:There is a spot of bird feces on my back deck.

This is not a rare occurance. There are many back there. This particular spot is not even the largest one. But there is something special about it...
I read this as "There is a spot of bird feces on the back of my neck..." and just stopped right there.

That is very strange. I read it the same way the first time. Then I went a bit further in the paragraph and "splinters" didn't make any sence so I read back and sure enough I had read it wrong.

Isn't it strange how the human mind works.

Aww, and it looks like he edited it. Too bad, it doesn't have the same affect any more.

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Fri May 27, 2005 6:35 am

I have never seen one of my cats do that. However, we used to have a dog that would escape from our back yard and go roll in the rabbit poop under the rabit hutches one of our nieghbors had. We asked our vet why the dog did that and she told us that some feces have a narcotic affect on dogs. Basically, our dog was getting high.

Maybe it's the same with your cats.

roid · Post by **roid** » Fri May 27, 2005 6:59 am

that's just dogs. dogs are dirty dogs.
dogs roll in ★■◆● because they find the smell appealing - you may notice a dog will do it straight after being washed.

never seen a cat do that. weird.
my cat's latest trick is to play with passionfruit and then sit on them like he's trying to hatch them.

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Fri May 27, 2005 7:13 am

roid wrote:never seen a cat do that.

They do it with Catnip.

Pun · Post by **Pun** » Fri May 27, 2005 8:58 am

How bout washing the bird ★■◆● off your deck?

Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Admiral Thrawn** » Fri May 27, 2005 9:59 am

punisher wrote:How bout washing the bird **** off your deck?

Since the time my other cat first did it, I've had multiple rainstorms. The turd is now nothing more than a stain

What is there to wash?

HaAGen DaZS · Post by **HaAGen DaZS** » Fri May 27, 2005 6:07 pm

on a sid enote, bird shizzle is full of worms, apparently. =)

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Fri May 27, 2005 6:38 pm

My dog will do that in some grass when I walk here and she's not the onyl dog to do that. Others I've seen, they find some spot, sniff it, then start to roll like they are high.

No idea why.

roid · Post by **roid** » Fri May 27, 2005 7:19 pm

CDN_Merlin wrote:My dog will do that in some grass when I walk here and she's not the onyl dog to do that. Others I've seen, they find some spot, sniff it, then start to roll like they are high.

No idea why.

it's ★■◆● mate.

Liquid Fire · Post by **Liquid Fire** » Fri May 27, 2005 8:03 pm

Mystery solved.

The chemical found to have the narcotic effect in catnip, nepetalactone, is also present in certain forms of small black ants. Both the plant and the animal use it as a protective measure against insects.

A bird landed at an anthill and ate a few of the occupants. Then the bird flew off. A while later, it let one off over my house. The chemical, still present in the excrement, attracted the cats who then proceeded to get high off the smell.

So in a sense, the birds have been eating catnip.

roid · Post by **roid** » Fri May 27, 2005 11:09 pm

wow, interesting.
good work

Vertigo 99 · Post by **Vertigo 99** » Fri May 27, 2005 11:28 pm

yea, good work indeed, howd you find that one out...

Liquid Fire · Post by **Liquid Fire** » Fri May 27, 2005 11:33 pm

Fairly simple. I google searched for catnip, found the chemical. A little reading and a couple searches later, I found the ants. After that, it doesn't take much creativity to figure out what happened.