OMG mad kitty So Fry was perfectly placid the night before→[More:] but was acting a bit weird when I stopped in during the afternoon for a couple minutes. Poor guy, too much alone time.

Then late last night when I was back home he freaked both of us out.

I was going down to the basement to check on laundry, one of his favorite little jaunts because it's normally closed off to him. He has some special games he has down there, like "smell the Christmas tree in the box" and "jump up to the window and arch my back" and "climb from the stairs over the water pipes to the cold air return duct where I can play peek-a-boo with stilicho".

Tonight, though, as I opened the door it sort of cornered him -- and he attacked me, or at least my work boots. Then he was begging at the door again, but clearly a bit off. On the stairs he kept attacking my boots. I wondered if I had some dog poop on them or something, but they were fine.

Then he was jumping on the table and hissing at me, and stormed around a bit, then was up on the concrete batting at nothing in the joists. All the while he was making the scariest distress sounds I've heard him make. When I got near he gave me a nasty snarl and puffed up his hair, so I backed off, spooked. I was now beginning to wonder if he was finally getting rabies and the test on the bat he caught was wrong. Or if there were another bat in the basement right now.

I tried going back upstairs, but he beat me to the stairs and snarled at me, blocking my way up. Eventually I sort of circled around and faked him out so I could get upstairs first, and lock him in the basement.

By now his behavior was so out of character that my heart was in my throat.

I got my winter coat on and my heavy work gloves, let him out, and tried to pick him up so I could put him in his cage. This sparked a fierce all-out war with my hand involving every tooth and claw at his disposal, and my gloves weren't that good, so I sort of tossed him down.

Weirdly, every time I spoke his name (barking "Fry!") or cooed at him ("Wassa matta boo?") he would sort of snap out of it for a second and give this "What am I doing?" look. Then pace around carefully and attack my boot again as if possessed.

There's no question with the situation we have now I couldn't devote a minute to this, but it was worrying me that come morning I'd have to take him in for euthanasia (and go back for more shots). He had been fine, slept in my bed with me the night before, calmly cuddled on my chest, some very kittenish behavior in him still at 18 months. Now this, out of nowhere.

I went over to the other building and got a leftover cat carrier a tenant left behind, and when I set it down next to him he actually walked right in! He's knee-jerk curious that way and used to his cage at least. So I locked him in, left him in the darkened room, and played some DICEWARS and Nano War to calm down. He howled for a while but then quieted himself.

It took a while of working on some other stuff and trying to get to where I could go to sleep for me to suddenly realize something.

Now, Fry is not a determined destroyer. He scratches only one piece of furniture, and that's the box spring I sleep on, and all my attempts to alter this behavior fail because what he wants is me to wake up and anything I do to stop him accomplishes this. Bzzt. But try as I might he does not get very interested in other scratching things. There's the door hanger thing -- nope. Bats it if the door is shut too tight, but won't scratch it. There's the floor thing with a catnip ball. He tried it for a day or two but hardly touches it now. There's the stand-up scratching post. I have to get him to chase a shoelace to jump onto it, whereupon he'll do some nice scratches until he knocks it over. I have to be involved, though, or to him it's just part of the room.

But. Despite this history, I had optimistically just bought Sunday a new cardboard scratching thing, and it was ... full of catnip. [Cat owners nod.] I didn't give it a second thought because he pretty much ignores any catnip toy I've ever given him, so I assumed he was unaffected. I just thought he might like the texture of this thing.

So I'd put it out, and apparently he'd spent the day getting high. Maybe it's quantity. I dunno, I'm far from a 'nip expert. But this was completely unexpected. Googling "catnip aggression" gave me plenty of support for my theory. When I thought about his behavior it was almost like he was hallucinating that I was someone or something else that he had to attack, but talking to him took him out of that illusion.

So I put the cardboard scratchy thing way up on the shelves where he can't really get to (and there aren't many places like that), and checked on him. Seemed to be calm, didn't want to attack my judiciously approaching finger. Trilling softly at me (his favorite way to talk, so cute).

I put the carrier up on the shelf above the computer, so he could watch me, and for the next hour he just sat there making eye contact as much as possible. I decided my theory had legs, but just to be cautious I carefully released him from the carrier into his cage, where he has a litterbox and water. He just stepped out like I lock him up in a carrier every day.

He was a bit antsy to get out the next morning (Wednesday), but I decided he sure wasn't acting even remotely rabid anymore. And he's been fine all day long, sleeping on my chest again, and only nipped at me once or twice (overly stimulating petting). Right now he's washing himself on top of the monitor.

I guess I have a catnip cat. My kitty is a dope fiend.

Maybe I can let him use the cardboard scratchy thing in small doses? Have to be careful.