We share our homes with the best of creatures – cats and dogs …
Dogs have always been the great protectors of the home. Cats bring us a sense of mystery and enchantment. They never forget that they were worshipped in Ancient Egypt and that they honour your home with their sacred presence. Introduce herbs into the lives of your pets and they too will share in the cleansing, enhancing and sanctifying nature of plants. I have two Bearded Collies called Sunshine and Moonbeam, and two Burmese cats called Cappuccino and Carciofo (Italian for artichoke), who grace my life with love and affection, warmth — and fleas.
into the bath
My dogs are long-haired. I find I need to bathe them regularly, which helps discourage fleas. I use a mild tea tree shampoo and try to keep each dog in the water for ten minutes to drown the fleas (not easy with Moonbeam!). Finally I give each dog a rinse with eucalyptus tea. Fleas really don’t like the smell.
Eucalyptus bath
- 4 tbsp dried eucalyptus leaves
- 2 cups boiling water
- or
- 0.20 drops tea tree or eucalyptus oil
- 600 ml (1 pint) water
Put the dried eucalyptus leaves into a tea pot and cover with the boiling water. Leave the leaves to steep until cool and then strain. Alternatively, add the tea tree or eucalyptus oil to 600 ml (1 pint) of water in a spray bottle and then spray the mist all over your dog (but be sure to protect his or her eyes).
doggy pillows
For all their supposed toughness, dogs are comfort- loving creatures. I make flea-repelling herb pillows for my dogs‘ beds. I stuff an old pillow case with herbs and sew it up. I then slip this pillow inside another old pillow case as they get dirty quite quickly and I like to change them often. Try a mixture of pennyroyal, camomile flowers and dried rue. I always include pennyroyal in my doggy mix. Its Latin name is Mentha pulegium, pulegium coming from pulex (flea) in Latin. The name for the main chemical constituent in pennyroyal is pule- gone. All of which proves that chemists do sometimes have a sense of humour.
When choosing herbs for your dog’s pillow remember that their noses are much more sensitive than ours. You don’t want to overwhelm them. There are times when this can be put to good use, however. Rubbing a little clove oil on the legs of furniture will discourage puppies from chewing them — but test out the clove oil somewhere inconspicuous to make sure it won’t damage your furniture or you will be back to square one.
cat naps
It’s not quite so easy with cats. Their saintly heritage makes them rather sensitive to strong smells, or anything that might dent their superior composure. Herbs like rue and pennyroyal, which repel fleas, also repel cats. I have found that some cats don’t mind camomile so I put a little in my cats‘ pillows and mix in some catmint or valerian. Just about every cat I have ever met goes mad for valerian. To my nose it smells like the socks of soldiers who have been marching for two days. But, out of love for Chino and Choffie, as they are rather disrespectfully known, I make a few extra herb sachets with this mixture and scatter them in my linen cupboard, where they love to laze the day away.
As these pillows are smaller than dog pillows I suggest crumbling up the dried herbs. Use a mixture of camomile and catmint, or camomile and valerian. If you want to keep your cats off the furniture or from marking the curtains, use a strong room spray — it deters the animals but pleases the humans!
A note about catmint. There is an old saying that cats take little notice of the plants that grow from seeds sown straight into the garden. But when you raise the seed indoors, or buy some plants, and then transplant them into the garden the cats will literally love it to death. I have never tested this theory scientifically. I find that my cats chew the plant no matter how I grow it.
troubled ears
Ear mites are a very common problem in cats and irritating for them and you. Dribbling a few drops of garlic oil (peel a whole bulb of garlic, steep it for a week in 1.2 litres (2 pints) of olive oil, strain, bottle the oil and keep it in the fridge — and don’t try to use essential oil of garlic, it’s much too strong) into the ear twice a day will help enormously. Stop if your cat is made unhappy by the smell.
If, however, you have a young female being courted by the local torn cat and you don’t want kittens, try putting a few drops of essential oil of garlic or squeeze a garlic capsule on the back of the female’s neck. Her suitor is likely to be put right off his stride.
Herbs for cats: to love and hate
- 600 ml (1 pint) spray bottle
- washing-up liquid
- 0.5 tsp thyme essential oil
Fill the spray bottle with water and add a couple of drops of washing-up liquid and the thyme essential oil. Shake the bottle well so the washing-up liquid helps the oil mix with the water. You can then spray this anywhere you want to keep cat-free — but test a small area first to make sure the room spray won’t mark.
