Adam, what have you done to my cat?
I can barely type these words. My 2-year-old spayed Siamese girl Jicky is weaving figure-eight circuits around my keyboard, trying to catch, lick and devour my left wrist. I’ve sprayed it with Adam Gottschalk’s Dionysus for Lord’s Jester, his submission for the Mystery of Musk operation, a celebration of the Natural Perfumers Guild’s fourth anniversary.
Jicky is now twisting on her back, mewing and purring like a truck. I first noticed the effect when I caught her mauling the blotter on which I’d sprayed Dionysus – have you ever tried evaluating a fragrance soaked in cat spit? I wrote to Adam to ask him what could cause this effect – this is like catnip, squared – and he supposed that it could be the African stone.
African stone, also know as hyraceum is an aromatic material produced by the fossilized dejections of the hyrax, a small rabbit-like, vaguely prehistoric-looking mammal that lives in Africa. Hyraceum is part of the vernacular medicine of South Africa, where it was used to cure epilepsy, and studies have revealed that it “shows affinity to the GABA-benzodiazepine receptors”. Benzodiazepines are pretty powerful mood-altering drugs – Librium, Valium, Lexomil and Rohypnol (the “date-rape” drug) all belong to its class. And most definitely, little Jicky could be abused in her current condition.
Dionysus, dedicated to the god of wine and ecstasy, certainly deserves its name, at least in the feline kingdom… Potent stuff, clearly.
I’ll be back soon with actual reviews. If the cat hasn’t gnawed my arm off. Or commandeered the keyboard to give her own account.
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I love you, Wicked Wanda ....
RépondreSupprimerAh, poor little Jicky! I'm glad I haven't received my sample of this yet, I love catnip, too!
RépondreSupprimer-Marla
Ida, it isn't my fault! Blame Adam! ;-)
RépondreSupprimerMarla, she is currently recovering from her emotions on the couch, tightly curled up in a ball, but if I so much as approach her, she raises her head and starts trying to lick/nip my wrist.
RépondreSupprimerHaven't noticed any human effect though... you're not saying catnip makes you twist around like crazy, are you?
I can just see the Whiskas people lining up to evaluate this stuff.
RépondreSupprimerHope Jicky regains her composure soon. Are you tempted to try any other fragrances on her??
Persolaise: as befits her name (and her mama), Jicky is quite the perfumista. She usually gives a sniff to all my blotters, and judging from the number of them I regularly find behind the couch, I think she's working on her own blend. But I've never seen anything have such an effect on her apart from catnip and valerian.
RépondreSupprimerI for one would love to read Jicky's review.
RépondreSupprimerAmy, her rough draft goes something like this: Rrrrrrrrrrr. Rawah. Mraah! Mrreew? Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Ooooroooo.
RépondreSupprimerHelpful?
Does Dionysus contain any mint? As you probably know, catnip is a member of the mint family and some mints effect cats like catnip. I used to have a Siamese male who would attack my wrist if I was wearing anything minty. My current Siamese boy seems immune to mint; he also is immune to catnip.
RépondreSupprimerNbh, I don't think it does, at least my nose doesn't detect any. I'll have to try a sprig of mint on the little minx. Or dig up my sample of Roadster!
RépondreSupprimerits cat woman's favorite fragrance :)
RépondreSupprimerEmma, what was it she said to the Penguin? "This makes me feel all... dirty. I think I'll take a shower now." And proceeds to groom herself.
RépondreSupprimerGdM, not exactly twisting around, but bhangra dancing, yeah. That stuff smells good! So does frankincense, for that matter.
RépondreSupprimer-Marla
Marla, that sounds like fun! (Waiter, I'll have what she's having..)
RépondreSupprimerI'm laughing too hard to write anything coherent. Besides, I have Rottweilers - they are pretty much immune to anything - except! every once in awhile they'll sniff something on the lawn that is invisible to the human eye and human nose....and suddenly all hell breaks loose, with them going down on their forelegs and trying to rub their faces in it.
RépondreSupprimerMusette, they do live in their own world, don't they? Animals. Meanwhile, whatever drugged out miss Kitty has now evaporated and rates only a vaguely interested sniff. Oof!
RépondreSupprimerI almost fell out of my chair from laughing so hard when I read this. I was reminded of the time when someone gave me a small potted catnip. I had two male cats at the time and had to run out for a bit. When i came home the pot was on the floor with dirt everywhere and the catnip reduced to very small pieces scattered around the apt. I have two cats I am sitting this weekend i may have help me evaluate Adam's perfume . It is pretty interesting stuff. The hyraceum makes sense. Love the description "fossilized dejections of the hyrax"!
RépondreSupprimer-Ross
Ross, on FB Dawn Spencer Hurwitz suggested it could be the spikenard instead... Whatever it is, there's another reason to be jealous of cats apart from their beauty, agility, elegance and general divinity: they get spectacular natural highs just from smelling things.
RépondreSupprimerMind you, she gets that from bleach too, and cleaning days drive her to ecstasy as well. But it's less poetic that hyraceum or spikenard.
LOL... what an interesting twist in this musk series!
RépondreSupprimerWomo531, I may have to put a moratorium on testing Dionysus. By the time I went to get coffee in the kitchen, my little minx had chewed up another strip, and spent the rest of the afternoon alternately staring in the void and twisting around like a wanton hussy!
RépondreSupprimerOh Denyse - I would love to read Jicky's input on every one of your reviews! Thanks for the smile.
RépondreSupprimerOperaFan, she's actually quite the little perfumista, but not extremely articulate about the stuff...
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