Nipped Nap: The dangers of catnip



Jennyanydots sat on top of the old Ford with several other cats the night of the Jellicle Ball, watching Bombalurina and her friends dancing.  The Gumbie sighed softly, fondly remembering a time when she, too, had danced during the highlight of the Ball...trying to catch the eye of a certain orange tomcat.  Those were the days….oh, to be young again!

Chuckling slightly, she poured herself a cup of tea from a pot nestled on some junk between the tire and the car, never noticing the paw that reached from the tire moments before to empty a bag of something green and powdery into the pot.  Taking a sip of tea, Jenny looked at it, slightly surprised.  "Wonder if Jelly's using a new recipe…" she mused to herself, drinking the rest of the cup rather quickly.  She looked at the pot skeptically for a moment, then poured herself another cup.  And another.  And one more, for good measure.

Halfway through the fifth cup, she hazily noticed Skimbleshanks on the ground below near the back of the car, motioning for her to come down and join him.  Sliding off the car slowly, and nearly losing her balance a few times, she sat down on the bumper.  For a moment, Skimble attempted to convince his mate to come out and dance with him and their daughter Jemima, but after getting nothing but a few convinced blinks and a giggle in response, he joined the other cats dancing after a moment, expecting that Jenny would follow shortly. Finally realizing what was going on, Jenny started to get up and dance with them, but the world was beginning to get a little bleary and staying upright wasn’t easy anymore, so she remained on the car bumper.

From his place with the other cats, Pouncival watched his aunt out of the corner of his eye, snickering as he tossed an empty bag marked "CATNIP" behind a junk pile. "The Gumbie Cat, getting 'nipped.  Guess she can't reprimand us anymore; she's in the same boat as Tugger and his friends!" the young adult thought to himself, grinning slyly, before running off to tell the tale of his mischief to the other adolescent toms.

It was true, of course.  Jennyanydots was as nipped, if not more so, than Tugger and his cronies.  It wouldn't really pose that much of a problem; all the Jellicles were getting ready for the catnap they always took as a refresher in the middle of the Ball, and with a little luck, no one would realize she'd been at the catnip.  Jenny yawned and rolled over, half falling off the car bumper, and started towards the center of the yard.  For a few moments, she was semiconscious of the fact she was rolling around on the ground with another cat, but before she could try and decipher who it was, she had passed out on the ground with the rest of the sleeping Jellicles.

After a few minutes, all of the cats were awoken by Mistoffelees, Coricopat, and Tantomile alerting them of Grizabella sneaking around the Junkyard.  Jenny felt rather than saw the cat curled up beside her move away, jostling her into consciousness. Crawling to her feet, she stumbled to the tire and sat there a moment, blinking slowly at the dancing going on around her before crawling under the car and falling asleep again.

(A short time later....)

"Psst, Jenny!  Wake up!" a voice hissed much too close to the Gumbie’s ear.  Opening her eyes, Jenny looked up to see Jellylorum trying to shake her awake.  "What the….oh, my head…" the queen muttered, holding her head in one paw.  

"Grizabella's come back again..... we've got to keep the kittens away from her; I don't want my daughters being wrongly influenced!"  Jelly said haughtily, pulling the other queen to her feet.  It only took a moment to drag Jemima and Victoria away from the faded Glamour cat and run off behind a junk pile, in spite of the kittens’ complaints.

Jenny was fully awake by now, and the recent events started piecing themselves together in her mind.  She remembered rolling around on the ground with another cat……a tom, in fact….a sleek black tom, with a mane….."Oh dear Heaviside!" she half screamed, sitting down quite suddenly on an overturned paint can; she was light-headed again, only this time it wasn’t the catnip.

Jelly, by nature a jumpy, nervous queen, jumped a full foot in the air.  "Jenny, what is it?  What's wrong?"

The Gumbie's eyes were wide with horror.  "I….I….I…." she spluttered, shaking her head in disbelief.

"You what, dearie?" Jelly cried, exasperated.  “For Heaven’s sake, stop stammering and spit it out!”

Face pale with disbelief, Jenny managed to gasp out, "Jelly…..I…I spent the catnap with the Rum Tum Tugger!"