And Something Funny...

One night last week I arrived home to the usual chaos. Nanuq had gotten into the trash can, pushed over the room divider and knocked over my cooking spices, which I keep neatly arranged in little glass jars. Everything was reparable except for the ground cloves. From what I could surmise, Nanuq had spilled the contents of the jar and then rolled around in it like a dog in a pile of fresh autumn leaves.

After cleaning up the mess, I started to worry. Could cloves be toxic? I couldn't tell for sure whether Nanuq had eaten any, so I investigated. Fortunately, I learned from my friend Erika that ground cloves aren't poisonous, but cats should not be given clove essential oils. (Apparently enough cats have eaten cloves that literature exists on the subject.)

Several hours later, while watching "American Idol"--let's see, was it Tuesday? Wednesday? Thursday?--my apartment started to smell like pumpkin pie. I couldn't figure it out, so I followed my nose. Straight to the litter box. For the next several days I enjoyed a whiff of Thanksgiving, thanks to my little Devil cat. I'm thinking of getting a patent on clove treats. It's an improvement over the alternative.