Detergent-induced feline narcolepsy
June 19, 2011 7:53 AM Subscribe
When we change the duvet cover on our bed, Pusslikeso immediately dives under the covers and basically becomes comatose. She can't wait, she runs into the bedroom as soon as we start and jumps up while we're changing the bottom sheet (so she often almost gets herself made into the bed). What chemical could she possibly be reacting to?
We use P&G's Ariel Color & Style detergent and Neutral softener. I'm assuming it's the Ariel. Ingredients:
aniogene surface agents, zeolites, non-aniogene surface agents, phosphonates, polycarboxylates, enzymes, butylphenyl methylproprional, hexyl cinnamal, linalol.
(I'm translating from Dutch/German/French here, so I may have gotten some of the terms a bit wrong.)
It's nothing like the catnip/olive/licorice/mint rolling reaction. She's out like a light and emerges hours later bleary-eyed. This isn't a problem, I don't think - unless my detergent is somehow chemically horrific - but I do wonder what it might be?
We use P&G's Ariel Color & Style detergent and Neutral softener. I'm assuming it's the Ariel. Ingredients:
aniogene surface agents, zeolites, non-aniogene surface agents, phosphonates, polycarboxylates, enzymes, butylphenyl methylproprional, hexyl cinnamal, linalol.
(I'm translating from Dutch/German/French here, so I may have gotten some of the terms a bit wrong.)
It's nothing like the catnip/olive/licorice/mint rolling reaction. She's out like a light and emerges hours later bleary-eyed. This isn't a problem, I don't think - unless my detergent is somehow chemically horrific - but I do wonder what it might be?
Best answer: Cant say for sure without photographic evidence. At least of the cat in question, but preferably of the cat in the sheets.
the answer is probably that sheet changing is relatively novel and she has trained you to make the bed at intervals that please here. Probably.
posted by bilabial at 8:05 AM on June 19, 2011 [13 favorites]
the answer is probably that sheet changing is relatively novel and she has trained you to make the bed at intervals that please here. Probably.
posted by bilabial at 8:05 AM on June 19, 2011 [13 favorites]
I've had cats all my life.
It's the "putting on the bedsheets" that twigs their "OMG WOOHOO I'm hunting prey in a cave YEEEAAHHHH" reaction followed by happy zonking out (safe in a 'cave').
See also: children and bed forts.
posted by fraula at 8:07 AM on June 19, 2011 [19 favorites]
It's the "putting on the bedsheets" that twigs their "OMG WOOHOO I'm hunting prey in a cave YEEEAAHHHH" reaction followed by happy zonking out (safe in a 'cave').
See also: children and bed forts.
posted by fraula at 8:07 AM on June 19, 2011 [19 favorites]
One cat takes violent exception to the bed being made and tries to subdue the sheets with repeated pouncing, and the other one gallops into the room and flings herself down on a freshly made bed with delight. My conclusion: cats are weird.
posted by restless_nomad at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2011 [5 favorites]
Much like jeather, I have experience with a cat who does this regardless of the detergent, softener, sheets in question (flannel v. cotton), or bed. She just looooooves sheet-changing time.
Also, many cats like being in small, comfy spaces. See: trying to get into bags, boxes, and tiny spots.
posted by cooker girl at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Also, many cats like being in small, comfy spaces. See: trying to get into bags, boxes, and tiny spots.
posted by cooker girl at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Chemical concerns wise, I get great mileage out of making my own laundry soap.
Grate a bar of soap (make sure there's no wax in the soap. I just get a natural bar, on the biggish side) stir up with 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup Borax. Keep stirring.
I use one tablespoon per load, a tad more if something gross is in the load.
Works. Treat and I no longer worry that I'm poisoning my skin.
I bet you 20 bucks you switch to home made and the cat still dives into the bed.
posted by bilabial at 8:10 AM on June 19, 2011 [4 favorites]
Grate a bar of soap (make sure there's no wax in the soap. I just get a natural bar, on the biggish side) stir up with 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup Borax. Keep stirring.
I use one tablespoon per load, a tad more if something gross is in the load.
Works. Treat and I no longer worry that I'm poisoning my skin.
I bet you 20 bucks you switch to home made and the cat still dives into the bed.
posted by bilabial at 8:10 AM on June 19, 2011 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Maybe it's linalool, which is a sweet, spicy herbal smell.
But I bet it's the warmth. I keep a small heating pad plugged in most of the time and my cat rarely sleeps anywhere else.
posted by acidic at 8:13 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
But I bet it's the warmth. I keep a small heating pad plugged in most of the time and my cat rarely sleeps anywhere else.
posted by acidic at 8:13 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
ditto, ditto, ditto--also the dog loves to hop on the bed and plop himself down.
posted by rmhsinc at 8:17 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by rmhsinc at 8:17 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
I don't thing its just a cat thing I have a rat terrier dog that does exactly the same thing, he is also addicted to clean laundry and likes to climb into the laundry basket and sleep on the clothes, be they line or dryer dried.
I work on the theory that putting hairs all over clean clothes/bedding was more fun.
posted by wwax at 8:17 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
I work on the theory that putting hairs all over clean clothes/bedding was more fun.
posted by wwax at 8:17 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yes, this is primo natural cat wonkiness, which my cat loves to engage in. No external chemicals required.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 8:39 AM on June 19, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Salvor Hardin at 8:39 AM on June 19, 2011 [2 favorites]
One of my cats doesn't require the sheet-changing ritual: she sleeps under the duvet every day. If I don't make the bed quickly enough on getting out of it in the morning, I find myself wrestling with her for control of the sheets when it's time to straighten it out. Nthing that this is normal (weird) cat behavior.
posted by immlass at 8:46 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by immlass at 8:46 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Cats often have a thing for sheets, blankets, etc. Just be glad the mystery cat in question doesn't have a thing for homework/bills/newspapers, because let me tell you, that gets really old really fast.
posted by SMPA at 9:10 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by SMPA at 9:10 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Nthing typical cat behavior. My Mom was convinced that Sparky (our first cat, adopted in 1980) hopped on the bed and scurried under the covers when she was trying to make the bed every morning just to annoy her. (Mom was a self-proclaimed cat-hater when we brought 8-week-old Sparky home and had said "Don't bother giving it a name, it won't be here long enough to learn it.") You can predict the end of the story - Sparky ended up being Mom's baby....she'd even let him lick ice cream off of her cone (she gave birth to me and wouldn't eat off of my fork!). Just last week Mr. Adams was making up the bed after I'd stripped it to wash the sheets and such. This is something I've always normally done, but I wasn't feeling well and he was ready for his nap, so he said "Just relax, I'll make the bed." I told him where to find the fitted sheets in the linen closet and sent him on his way. A few minutes later I heard his increasingly frustrated voice from upstairs: "Goddammit Tweak, get out of the way! Tweak, what are you doing? I'm trying to make the bed - Tweak!!!" (Tweak is our cat and was apparently having the time of her life getting Dad so involved in her "game".)
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:41 AM on June 19, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:41 AM on June 19, 2011 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I have a old cat behavior book somewhere that discusses this pattern of actions at length.
The author got worried about her cat having enough air deep in heavy covers for hours and pulled it out one time, and found her cat totally limp and completely unresponsive. She thought it was dead-- suffocated.
As I dimly and unreliably recall, she was getting ready to go to the vet, not with any real hope, when the cat began to show signs of life and then seemed fine within a few minutes. She considered it a great mystery.
Mammals have a diving reflex
which optimizes respiration to allow staying underwater for extended periods of time. It is exhibited strongly in aquatic mammals (seals,[1] otters, dolphins, etc.), but exists in a weaker version in other mammals, including humans. Diving birds, such as penguins, have a similar diving reflex. Every animal's diving reflex is triggered specifically by cold water contacting the face[2] – water that is warmer than 21 °C (70 °F) does not cause the reflex, and neither does submersion of body parts other than the face. Also, the reflex is always exhibited more dramatically, and thus can grant longer survival, in young individuals. ...
Upon initiation of the reflex, three changes happen to the body, in this order:
1. Bradycardia is the first response to submersion. Immediately upon facial contact with cold water, the human heart rate slows down ten to twenty-five percent.[2] Seals experience changes that are even more dramatic, going from about 125 beats per minute to as low as 10 on an extended dive.[1][3] Slowing the heart rate lessens the need for bloodstream oxygen, leaving more to be used by other organs.
2. Next, peripheral vasoconstriction sets in. When under high pressure induced by deep diving, capillaries in the extremities start closing off, stopping blood circulation to those areas. Note that vasoconstriction usually applies to arterioles, but in this case is completely an effect of the capillaries. Toes and fingers close off first, then hands and feet, and ultimately arms and legs stop allowing blood circulation, leaving more blood for use by the heart and brain. Human musculature accounts for only 12% of the body's total oxygen storage, and the body's muscles tend to suffer cramping during this phase. Aquatic mammals have as much as 25 to 30% of their oxygen storage in muscle, and thus they can keep working long after capillary blood supply is stopped.
A cat diving under the covers doesn't meet a number of the conditions necessary for triggering this reflex in humans, but I don't think it's beyond possibility some version of it is operating in your cat, and other cats.
But why would they do this?
I don't think the disgusting and degraded practice of getting rid of unwanted kittens by putting them in a bag and tossing it into a river was ever universal enough, or done long enough to exert any selective pressure on cats.
The only guess I've ever been able to come up with is that an hours long, high carbon dioxide bath might kill fleas.
On a side note, one of the effects of the diving reflex sounds a lot like what happens to people who display Raynaud's phenomenon:
...under high pressure induced by deep diving, capillaries in the extremities start closing off, stopping blood circulation to those areas. Note that vasoconstriction usually applies to arterioles, but in this case is completely an effect of the capillaries. Toes and fingers close off first, then hands and feet, and ultimately arms and legs stop allowing blood circulation...
My partner, who's of Norwegian descent, often develops it when suddenly exposed to cold, long before anything has a chance of actually getting cold. Her fingers and toes turn bright white almost instantly.
Perhaps cats aren't the only ones to have repurposed the diving reflex.
posted by jamjam at 10:01 AM on June 19, 2011 [3 favorites]
The author got worried about her cat having enough air deep in heavy covers for hours and pulled it out one time, and found her cat totally limp and completely unresponsive. She thought it was dead-- suffocated.
As I dimly and unreliably recall, she was getting ready to go to the vet, not with any real hope, when the cat began to show signs of life and then seemed fine within a few minutes. She considered it a great mystery.
Mammals have a diving reflex
which optimizes respiration to allow staying underwater for extended periods of time. It is exhibited strongly in aquatic mammals (seals,[1] otters, dolphins, etc.), but exists in a weaker version in other mammals, including humans. Diving birds, such as penguins, have a similar diving reflex. Every animal's diving reflex is triggered specifically by cold water contacting the face[2] – water that is warmer than 21 °C (70 °F) does not cause the reflex, and neither does submersion of body parts other than the face. Also, the reflex is always exhibited more dramatically, and thus can grant longer survival, in young individuals. ...
Upon initiation of the reflex, three changes happen to the body, in this order:
1. Bradycardia is the first response to submersion. Immediately upon facial contact with cold water, the human heart rate slows down ten to twenty-five percent.[2] Seals experience changes that are even more dramatic, going from about 125 beats per minute to as low as 10 on an extended dive.[1][3] Slowing the heart rate lessens the need for bloodstream oxygen, leaving more to be used by other organs.
2. Next, peripheral vasoconstriction sets in. When under high pressure induced by deep diving, capillaries in the extremities start closing off, stopping blood circulation to those areas. Note that vasoconstriction usually applies to arterioles, but in this case is completely an effect of the capillaries. Toes and fingers close off first, then hands and feet, and ultimately arms and legs stop allowing blood circulation, leaving more blood for use by the heart and brain. Human musculature accounts for only 12% of the body's total oxygen storage, and the body's muscles tend to suffer cramping during this phase. Aquatic mammals have as much as 25 to 30% of their oxygen storage in muscle, and thus they can keep working long after capillary blood supply is stopped.
A cat diving under the covers doesn't meet a number of the conditions necessary for triggering this reflex in humans, but I don't think it's beyond possibility some version of it is operating in your cat, and other cats.
But why would they do this?
I don't think the disgusting and degraded practice of getting rid of unwanted kittens by putting them in a bag and tossing it into a river was ever universal enough, or done long enough to exert any selective pressure on cats.
The only guess I've ever been able to come up with is that an hours long, high carbon dioxide bath might kill fleas.
On a side note, one of the effects of the diving reflex sounds a lot like what happens to people who display Raynaud's phenomenon:
...under high pressure induced by deep diving, capillaries in the extremities start closing off, stopping blood circulation to those areas. Note that vasoconstriction usually applies to arterioles, but in this case is completely an effect of the capillaries. Toes and fingers close off first, then hands and feet, and ultimately arms and legs stop allowing blood circulation...
My partner, who's of Norwegian descent, often develops it when suddenly exposed to cold, long before anything has a chance of actually getting cold. Her fingers and toes turn bright white almost instantly.
Perhaps cats aren't the only ones to have repurposed the diving reflex.
posted by jamjam at 10:01 AM on June 19, 2011 [3 favorites]
Beverly Cleary describes a cat whose fondness for playing with sheets causes a near disaster in Sister of the Bride.
posted by brujita at 10:09 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by brujita at 10:09 AM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: How could I forget protocol so? I apologize! Here she is in all her glory.
Now I can read your answers with a clear conscience.
posted by likeso at 11:52 AM on June 19, 2011 [4 favorites]
Now I can read your answers with a clear conscience.
posted by likeso at 11:52 AM on June 19, 2011 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Thank you! Great stories and great theories, one and all - so all get favorites.
In Pusslikeso's case, I'm thinking it might just be a combination of bilabial, acidic and jamjam's ideas. Of all the cats who've owned me, many have been sheet pouncers or bed burrowers; but Pusslikeso is focused on getting in and curling up, and will only do this on the day of fresh sheets, and only if she's alone in the bed. All other times, she'll snuggle up with me for a nap and of course she enjoys a human mousefeet hunt just before lights out, but the wanna-getta-hourlong-coma seems to be triggered by - I now think, thanks to acidic - linalool.
And brujita, I remember: it was the long, heirloom, lace wedding veil. :)
posted by likeso at 1:30 PM on June 19, 2011
In Pusslikeso's case, I'm thinking it might just be a combination of bilabial, acidic and jamjam's ideas. Of all the cats who've owned me, many have been sheet pouncers or bed burrowers; but Pusslikeso is focused on getting in and curling up, and will only do this on the day of fresh sheets, and only if she's alone in the bed. All other times, she'll snuggle up with me for a nap and of course she enjoys a human mousefeet hunt just before lights out, but the wanna-getta-hourlong-coma seems to be triggered by - I now think, thanks to acidic - linalool.
And brujita, I remember: it was the long, heirloom, lace wedding veil. :)
posted by likeso at 1:30 PM on June 19, 2011
Yes, this is Chapter 1 in any feline handbook: Cats Are Weird.
posted by MexicanYenta at 7:56 PM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by MexicanYenta at 7:56 PM on June 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jeather at 8:02 AM on June 19, 2011 [12 favorites]