Okay...

[telophase]

Discovered something odd this morning while making lunch. I rearranged the pantry a couple of weeks ago, and now the spice rack is sitting on the counter. We have a small number of little plastic bags of various herbs and spices because we can buy small amounts from the bulk goods area of Central Markup, so we don't have to buy a large jar that we have to throw out three-quarters full later on.

Anyway. I was making lunch when Nefer jumped onto the counter behind me, investigated the spice rack, and started snuffling at the plastic bags. Intrigued, I spread them out to see which one she was interested in, and she sniffed out the bag of sweet smoked paprika, and started rubbing her head and drooling on it, like for all the world it was catnip.

I took it away from her, but a few minutes alter, when Toby walked into the kitchen, I showed him her reaction. By unanimous vote, the paprika is now housed in the pantry instead of the spice rack, and we are left wondering why this reaction. A (very) quick Google produced nothing but a page that suggested putting substances that cats find unappealing like paprika on items you don't want them chewing or licking, but I think if I put paprika on the chairs the cats lick, Nefer would never leave them.

Toby has instructions to try it on Sora, and see how he reacts. :)

ETA: myrialux reports:

He was interested, but not like she was. And when I showed the bag to her again, she didn't react as strongly. Put a tad on my fingers, but that only got more sniffing an one instance of Nefer rubbing her face against my hand. Rubbed a bit on the foam letter mat, but no reaction like catnip.

The foam letter mat is what we have under the cat boxes - interlocking foam squares with letters in them meant for a kid's playroom, but which serve perfectly well to protect the floor from litter. We'll try it on Nefer again this evening - cats tend to temporarily stop reacting to catnip after sniffing it for a while, and have to wait before the reaction comes back.

Comments

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

Maxwell does that to Dwayne's shoes. Not his feet, not his socks, just his shoes. It's really bizarre - he'll flop over and try to stuff his entire head in the shoe. Then he sits on the shoe, rubs his face on it, and drools a little.

It's kind of disturbing.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Wow. Both my cats like shoes, but not to that extent.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Well, Cooking Light (I think, or maybe it was Mark Bittman) was always recommending smoked paprika in place of bacon in vegetarian recipes, so maybe your cat thinks it's bacon. :P

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Replacing bacon with smoked paprika ...? I think I'd have to kill someone. They're both strong, smoky flavors, but I like bacon because it's bacon, not because it's strong and smoky. (I could throw in my lapsang souchang tea if that was all I wanted!)

Nefer does like bacon, but she doesn't get any except for a very teeny, tiny piece once in a while because pork makes her throw up if it's any larger than a taste. XD

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, but bacon's not really an option if you're vegetarian. :P I guess the idea was that it helped maintain the flavor profile of recipes where bacon was an element rather than the centerpiece. (And I love it too.)

mmm, now I'm thinking of breakfast-for-dinner except I don't think it's going to keep well with C. getting home at 11:30 PM. :P I'm going to have to post about my new cooking dilemma. :/

[telophase.livejournal.com]

That's true. I was thinking more of people trying to make recipes lowfat than of vegetarians. XD

[puppleball.livejournal.com]

Tabby used to react to menthol like that including excessive drooling. Made putting icy hot on interesting.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Hee!

I wonder how Nefer will react the next time we're cooking with it?

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Do you give her bacon? Maybe it was pressing her bacon buttons.

Mmmmm bacon! Kitty! Scientific experiment!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yes, but only very tiny amounts as pork makes her throw up. She never treats it like catnip, though!