The grassy addiction.............

Although it is bitterly cold and frosty outside and I can't see the grass under the white crispy coating, for some reason this morning I have remembered how the cats acted around a certain patch. It was a tiny piece of what just looked like normal grass to me. All the cats would trot over to this piece of leafy strands and generally chew on a blade for a few minutes and then they would react in a variety of amusing ways. Ripley would rub her head from side to side over this part, turning her head in a rotating motion until we thought she would fall over with dizziness. Peanut just sniffed it and seemed to fall into a dopey stupor. Jonesy would throw himself into that grassy carpet with the sort of abandonment you generally see in a young kitten. He would roll his whole body around, sprawling on his back, legs akimbo,arching and looking, for all intents and purposes, like a cat who has indeed got the cream!! All this would only go on for a few minutes and then they would each simply get up and trot off like nothing whatsoever had been going on! They almost became addicted in the end, as it happened every day.
Hubby and I have looked and looked at this patch of grass. It looks the same as all the rest of the grass to us! It didn't end up the same colour because in the last summer that Jonesy was ill he used to simply lie in this very same patch. The grass ended up a sort of yellowy dullness where it never got any light! We could not, for the life of us, see what difference this little bit of grass was to all the rest. Of course we had many theories, mainly based around cat nip, but have never really investigated more. Why would our cats go into this type of ecstatic lethargy in this area? It certainly didn't act the same on humans.......not that we tried chewing it, I can tell you! The cats didn't always eat it but they did always react similarly. Having hunted around on the internet for pictures of cat nip, it is plain to see this patch of grass was not that plant. Weird! Apparently there is such a thing as wheat and oat grass for cats....or anyone for that matter!..... and although research suggests it is good for their digestion, it doesn't explain the sheer happiness they appeared to experience? Mind you a good piece of chocolate cake will give me sheer happiness, not that I rub myself in it. Ooerr!