My cat and celery.

Interesting. I did find one web link where someone gave a testimonial account of their cat reacting the same way to celery leaves as they do catnip, but that\\\’s about all I can find on the subject. I\\\’ve never heard of cats having any particular affinity for celery leaves, but I suppose it\\\’s possible. It could also be that your cat just liked the way it felt on her face.

I would suggest that you not make a habit of giving your cat people food. Begging is a learned behavior. If you give your cat table scraps or human food, your cat will continue to seek it out. There are a lot of foods that can be harmful for cats, too. Stick to food and treats that are specifically for cat consumption. If you want to give her a \\\”human\\\” treat, stick to plain cooked chicken.

Dogs and cats like to dose themselves with odors that they like, by rubbing/rolling around in them. Celeray doess have some strong chemicals in it (perhaps one of those is similar to the chemicals in catnip). But I have put celery leaves in my compost pail, and none of the cats who like catnip were in any way interested in the celery (perhaps it wasn\\\’t fresh enough). Perhaps your cat realized that humans like the smell of celery and wanted to make itself more appealing by smelling more like a human.