The idea of having a signature scent attracts me. I love thinking that when someone catches a whisper of Guerlain Vol de Nuit he thinks of me, or that my friends associate me with the warm, entrancing aroma left on my coat or suffusing my bedroom. But hey, that's not going to happen. I haven't counted lately, but my number of "signature" scents is probably pushing 100.
Now, though, I have a new justification. When I see someone's eyes start to pop at the sight of my perfume cabinet, I have the perfect reply. "Of course I have lots of perfume," I'll say. "Why? For 'enrichment', of course."
To explain, let me take a step back. I have a friend, Ann Littlewood, who used to be a zookeeper. Now she writes terrific mystery novels that take place in the fictional Finley Memorial Zoo. When she heard I like perfume, she mentioned she used to spray fragrance in the tigers' dens at the zoo. I asked her what perfume she sprayed, and why, and she sent me an answer by email:
Angie, It's very common for zoo keepers to use perfume for what is called "enrichment," which is some sort of fun or mild challenge for the animals to avoid boredom and keep them mentally stimulated. Many animals are very responsive to unusual scents and perfume (or cologne or perfumed magazine inserts) are used. For example, a keeper might spray a perfume on a log while cleaning the tiger enclosure. The animal is released from the night den and sniffs around as usual. OMG! WTF?? The cat will sniff, rub his/her face on it, and sometimes roll on the ground or claw at the smell. It can be very engaging. Keepers are careful not to use any particular scent too often, so it stays interesting. Keepers have many other tricks, such as frozen "blood sicles", sprinkling zebra poop around, and various toys.
She said the zoo she worked at used Mary Kay Angelfire, but the tigers at the Minnesota Zoo are partial to Calvin Klein Obsession and Revlon Charlie. Apparently, not just tigers, but raccoons, skunks, weasels, lizards, badgers, and snakes, and other animals enjoy a little scented distraction. The Fort Worth Zoo's "Enrichment Online" site touts perfume enrichment as a cheap way to entertain animals. They estimate it costs one to ten dollars (which at least explains Charlie) and doesn't hurt the animal's health.
We're used to comparing ourselves to animals. We refer to offices as "cubicle farms," to some men as "wolves," messy eaters as "pigs," and you can make the rest of the connections to bears, beavers, monkeys, horses, rats, jackasses, etc. Maybe we have more freedom than animals in a zoo. But think about it: considering the few of us who really take advantage of that freedom, we may as well live in a managed habitat. I know too often I'm stuck in my same routine of work, dog walks, dinner, and bed. A little enrichment is welcome indeed.
I'll pass by the blood sicles and zebra poop — and while I'm at it Obsession and Charlie, too— and go straight for my favorite niche perfume houses. (Who knows? Maybe my greater selectivity will head off the skunks and weasels.) And did you see the part in Ann's email where she said zookeepers avoid using a particular scent too often? Each morning when I gaze into my crowded perfume cabinet I'll think about how I'm going to enrich myself that day.
A parting word to zookeepers: for another cheap thrill try Dana Tabu. And for the big cats, I bet you can't go wrong with Fabergé Tigress.
Enrichment… this is a CLASSIC, Angela. I love it! Great post.
Hmm… but I notice that my “small cats” always wrinkle up their noses and move away when I put on perfume. So far I haven’t found even one that they’ll sniff.
Rappleyea, I suspect it’s because your cats aren’t bored like the big cats in the zoo. Your wardrobe of scents keeps them stimulated, so they can then ACT bored, the way cats are prone to do!
Excellent point!
And why didn’t I think of that? 😀
Yeah, one of my little tigers actually runs from me if I have perfume on the back of my hand.
Have you tried Obsession or Charlie?
I do have to admit my dog seems to like my perfume more than the cat does. But she doesn’t mind it as far as I can tell!
Maybe you have more ESTs than you knew… 😉
I guess I’m the only one who has cats that actually try to lick the perfume off of me. I’ve actually had to pry our larger cat off of me, his tongue shooting out like an anteater, claws hooked in my sweater, me screaming…
They also like body lotion. But I have very weird cats.
Wow! That’s quite a reaction!
My dog likes lotion, too. Once he opened (how, I don’t know) and ate a tub of shea butter.
Wow, I bet he was regular for a good week after that!
I think your log-in name says it all!
LOL!
Who are apprently related to my weird cat, who loves perfume and is all over me whenever I spritz or dab a new one. There are very few she doesn’t like. But my dog ( a bassett) just sort of snurfles at me.
Bassets are real snurflers, aren’t they?
I have a cat that loves body lotion too. I have to push her away when I wear it.
Same here. My little guy Hank is a persistent Cetaphil licker.
My dog loves lotion, but so far the cat has stayed clear of it.
I have one cat who also licks perfume off, slowly and deliberately, going up and down my arm and over my hand so as not to miss a spot.
What a methodical kitty! Is that a picture of her?
So far, I have found two “smells” (they’re not perfumes per se): 5% jasmine EO (nothing fancy, no sambac, just Egyptian grandiflorum from the local store) and civet extract from profumum.it. She adores the jasmine and keeps trying to lick it (won’t let her though) and seems to be fascinated and repulsed by the civet, which makes sense in a way; it *should* flag that a rully big cat has come that way.
That should have been: two smells my kitty is attracted to. D’oh.
The jasmine surprises me, although maybe some of the indole attracts her. And civet! That’s hilarious.
My male cat Beauty has a nose for the finer things in life; he loves to sniff flowers and prefers scented ones, and he likes to sniff my perfumes. Oddly enough, he prefers the floral ones over the animalic ones. Sometimes I let him whiff a new one on my wrist and see whether it meets with his approval. 😉
Beauty is sure living up to his name!
How completely cool. Love the illustration– I would rush to my little sample vial of vintage Tigress, but I just doused myself with Chanel No22. Tomorrow, perhaps, if it doesn’t turn out to be the Fidji day that the weather forecast suggests.
I sure wouldn’t mind a few Fidji days, and quick!
This certainly provides an excellent rationale for buying from certain niche houses; Etat Libre d’Orange comes to mind. . .
Oh yes! Any justification is a good one, and enrichment is particularly good, I think.
Aaah! I wonder how the animals would respond to Secretions Magnifique? Or maybe I don’t want to know.
Very ugly images pop into my mind.
sheeesh, and you thought the neighbor’s dog already loved your leg….
Hahahaha!
Great article! And I have noticed that my daughter’s Boston Terrier loves to sniff my perfume (he’ll focus on sniffing the areas where I’ve applied it, e.g., wrists, etc.) when he comes over.
And I have another “enrichment” rationalization to add. My husband is a scientist who does research in the field of aging, and I believe that wearing different perfumes and learning to identify all the different notes in them is good exercise for the brain (not to mention keeping track of the brands, names, etc.!).
So right–enrichment challenges the brain! We perfume enthusiasts will have spry minds. I like that.
One of the indicators for Alzheimer’s disease is the inability to distinguish smells. It’s sad to say I know this because my grandfather had Alzheimer’s, and my grandmother (his wife) was diagnosed about two years ago.
So we’d better enjoy them while we can.
so sorry to hear it. Alzheimer’s is such a horrible condition…I wish extra strength for your entire family.
Hi MALS88…
Sorry to hear, but relate deeply. My father is in late stage Alzheimer’s. It has been very difficult for various reasons which I won’t get into.
In any case, Obsession is an interesting choice. I have a friend who said men used to follow her around when she wore that (in the 80’s). Made me think ‘animals’. Certain perfumes do certain things on certain people.
Not entirely on subject here!
Plenty on subject for this post!
Aw, Mals, I’m so sorry. I like this idea that we may be able to keep our brains more fit just by doing what we love to do!
Me too. Enrich away!
Absolutely.
Actually, anosmia is the precursor for a variety of neurological diseases. Parkinson’s and Huntington’s, to name but two. I’ve been scared of losing my sense of smell ever since I learned that.
That is chilling, really.
Interesting! My own cat doesn’t seem to notice perfume at all, even citrus (although she runs away if I peel an orange near her). Maybe her life is already too full of fascinating stimulation? 😉
Every cat deserves a window with birds outside and a few carefully chosen cat toys littering the living room. The really lucky cats get Mitsouko from time to time.
Sounds like my house, exactly!! Well, sans the Mitsouko, which I really should remedy asap… yay enrichment! 😉
Do remedy the Mitsouko! You won’t regret it (hopefully.)
The idea of those big cats rolling around because of perfume is delightful. Like liquid catnip!
The idea of a signature scent sounds wonderful to me as well. As a child, I would have been able to pick out my mother blindfolded as she only wore Youth Dew (and still does). My boys wouldn’t have much luck identifying me by smell alone. Would be more like that Dr. Suess bird. . . “Are you my mother?”
Why is this here?! I thought I was at the end of page. . . .sorry!
That’s o.k.! These comments can turn up in the darndest places.
No one would know me by my fragrance either, but like you, I could peg my grandmother by Youth Dew, too.
Once I spilled some Musc Ravageur on the floor beside my bed and within about 15 seconds my “top cat” came and peed over the very spot! I figure that scent must have evoked some kind of very primal reaction in her.
Wow! Now that’s quite a statement.
Hilarious! (Well, except that you had to clean it up. And now your floor will smell faintly of Musc ravageur and cat pee when it rains. So not really so funny, after all.)
Whenever my cat has a statement to make, she seems to use the same vocabulary.
Scent is a powerful vocabulary!
So is pee, albeit less socially acceptable. 😀
I feel so much better about the grievously offended looks my cats give me when I apply perfume….at least my hurt feelings don’t require Resolve rug cleaner and a bucket!
So true. I’ve sprayed plenty of Resolve in my time.
Fascinating. I honestly had no idea that animals would care about this kind of thing. My dogs are repulsed by the smells that I love, like coffee and wine, which doesn’t stop them from begging when I am consuming these things, but once sniff, and they look at me like I am completely insane. I’ve just assumed that the same thing goes for my perfumes.
For the first couple of years I had my dog, he would come running into the kitchen whenever he heard the martini shaker in action. Sometimes he barks at the tea kettle. But really it’s the frying pan he loves.
I love your dog. 🙂
Me too!
oh my, a martini shaker rake-I love him already!
If you saw him, you’d only love him more! He’s a handsome mutt, he is.
My cat can be anywhere else in the house, and if I use the can opener (manual, not electric), she’ll be in the kitchen within twenty seconds, twining around my legs and begging. And that’s just recently – she’s 17 and arthritic. Her time used to average about eight seconds.
She’s frequently disappointed, when she finds out I just opened a can of pineapple, not the tuna she wanted.
my cat has a thing for anything “shaken” thinks it’s the extra-creamy whipped cream can every time. I always keep a can on hand for her—all you have to do is shout out “Whippies!” and she’ll be dashing around the corner to accept the gift of a saucer piled with whipped cream. Not a bad gig for a half-dead starved thing from the shelter….
Nice! When I die I want to come back as your cat!
LOL Angela—first you’d have to come back as the most bedraggled looking thing in the shelter, possibly ill as well….we always seem to pick the most hapless things….but the good news is that we would nurse you back to health and shower you with toys, whipped cream upon demand, diced chicken breast or baked salmon for dinners, and the best spot on the bed (usually the pillow and its environs) …this is why the CEO calls my cats “the Lottery Winners” 😉
I am enthralled by the image of Daisy, our Empress of Enabling, pampering her cat with whipped cream. OF COURSE!!!!! 🙂
…I just don’t know where my kitties get their attitude…..
I get so depressed thinking about mistreated animals and animals in shelters that when I hear or read a story like this, I take a minute to rejoice in the good news – here’s one that made it. This one found a loving home. It does my heart good. It really does.
When I called my little tiger in from the jungle tonight, she came running in with a mouse in her mouth and dropped it underneath the dining room table. We were able to save the mouse and return it to the great outdoors. Needless to say, my tiger is not in need of any extra stimulation. She finds her own excitement and keeps us on our toes, too.
awww L , I know just what you mean. Heartbreaking the way animals are disregarded in our society. My daughter and I used to regularly volunteer at the animal shelter in our area (so it’s no mystery why I have 3 adopted sad cases turned queens of the universe–and 1 dog who still thinks she needs fight off starvation). About a year ago we decided that we just couldn’t stand it any longer.
I don’t know why Pavlov had to do his experiment. He clearly didn’t have pets!
There’s a great Eddie Izzard bit about Pavlov’s cat. 🙂 It’s really cute, and since it’s Eddie, a key part of the joke involves a word I can’t use here.
I can only imagine!
I was cat-sitting once, and lost the cat. Eventually I resorted to running the electric can opener and out she came from her hidey-hole.
That’s actually hilarious. Oh, I remember how the animals would come running with excitement to the sound of a can opener! But our sweet Brandy would run the other way whenever we said “Bath!”
The old can opener trick–rarely fails!
…and “bath” never fails to elicit the “gotta hide” response! 😉
Tigers as perfumistas? Who would have thunk it, Angela?
Tigress indeed!
Hugs!
Hugs to you, too! I have to admit the last time I sprayed Tigress on my arm it raised welts. (sad face here) But I bet a real tiger would love it.
OMG! And that’s what you sent me with no warning label? I’m calling IFRA! Seriously, I did wear Tigress all day yesterday with nary a welt. But sadly, though it brought to mind about seven other perfumes, there was no Proustian epiphany…
Really, just a few barely raised pink patches. They faded quickly! No itching!
lol – my dog always sniffs me when I spritz, especially if I’m wearing something new. Before we got rid of the carpet, she used to roll around in the area right beneath were I spritzed – I’m assuming that some of the overspray got on the carpet and she was either trying to “reclaim” the carpet by marking it with her own scent or she was trying to make herself smell like me.
You were enriching her! Using the techniques of the best zookeepers! Good work.
aw! your dog is sooo COOL! I’m afraid that Roxie cares not a bit what perfume I wear….and she’d prefer to enrich herself with ickky things she finds on walks….which only earns her mommy-disapproval AND a bath !! Sometimes she’ll sniff something particularly odious then look at me, and heave a heavy sigh of regret….I know she’s thinking: “yes, this would be lovely to rub my neck on but mommy will yell and then it’ll be the bath for me….oh, what could have been….”
Sadly true. Nothing is quite as enriching to a dog as a rotting fish carcass.
I love this. As someone who wears perfume to convey a mood, a feeling, a memory, a place, or a time I tend to be all over the place with my perfumes. My fiance’ likes to try to figure out which fragrance I’m wearing each morning — he’s become quite good.
While I have my go-to staples — and a signature scent — I find myself often deliberating over which perfume to wear on any given day. Traveling is the absolute worst when I realize that some lovely flacons are simply NOT going to travel well at all and also that I can’t take half my fragrance collection with me.
Last time I traveled abroad, I countered this mundane existence by layering. Avignon is the perfect travel scent for layering because it literally changes everything and in my opinion makes many already lovely perfumes just a little edgier, a little bolder.
One reason I buy so many new fragrances and find myself literally craving some at times is because it mixes things up. It keeps me stimulated. There’s little I love more than wearing a perfume for the first time and trying to pick out all the little notes and understanding how it develops on my skin. I apply liberally to my wrists so when I leaning my head against my hand while reading through emails I get a little whiff of whatever I’m wearing. I’ll just call it enriching my life through perfume from now on. Thanks for the lovely post.
It sounds like you’re not only enriching your own life, but also enriching your fiancé’s! I like your layering strategy for vacations, too.
Have to admit I get around the travel thing by decanting. I now have sample sizes of a few dozen of my favorites that just live in boxes waiting for me to go somewhere…
I do that, too. A few have found their way into my purse, too, and the car and my office…
Just checked my purse…only four decants and holding (only because I recently switched purses. My desk drawer, however…ok, about ten. I think.
That sounds about right!
Brilliant post, Angela! I love the concept of enrichment. I’ll have to test it out on my tiny tigress. So far, her only reaction is a weird yowl if I wear very musk based scents, MKK in particular. Too fascinating. . .my browser will be exploring enrichment articles, I can tell. Thanks for the post!
Oh boy, I bet MKK would drive the tigers absolutely berserk. It would definitely cost more than $10, though.
that would set some precedent! Tigers insisting upon niche…. the Cheetahs in eco-environment # 4 have lodged a complaint : they want only vintage classics from now on…..
Uh oh. I don’t think the zookeepers know what monsters they may be creating!
Fragrance articles are always interesting, but this one is truly fascinating. Thank you for this one!
I have two cats at home. One wrinkles his nose at almost any perfume I spray and the other tries to lick it off my wrists after it dries down. I have to keep the magazine catalog inserts away from him because he’ll rip them open and lick those too.
How funny! Maybe by licking it he can smell it more clearly.
Love this! I immediately enriched myself with a couple judicious spritzes of Micallef Mon Parfum…..one right down my shirt!!! It’s true! I do feel enriched!!! And I’m enriching myself with a spritz of Givenchy Harvest 2007 Mimosa on one wrist as well….heheheh I’m going to enrich myself right into my own perfume atmoshpere here in a minute!
I love the image of the tigers coming out for a regular morning sniff and finding the scented log (I’ll pass on the zebra poo as well) …like when I take the dog for a walk; there are a few spots that are always particularly “interesting” and you can imagine why.
What’s this? I thought you hated mimosa!
It’s so dangerous as a perfume lover to say you hate anything. I can’t tell you how many notes I thought I’d never wear.
Hehe, and that’s why I sent her a sample anyway… 😉
It WAS you! —my apologies—once samples go into the “abyss” I never can recall who sent them. I’ve really benefitted so much from so many wonderful people—-perfumistas really are the most generous souls. —and it is terrible to not remember who has sent me what. The idea of a spreadsheet like yours is simultaneously wonderful and overwhelming!
Oh please! If I was dealing with the volume/quantities you are, I wouldn’t have a clue myself. I just remember agonizing over whether actually to send this to a proclaimed mimosa-hater, but my conviction that it was a great scent won out. I just assumed it did nothing to change your mind. 😀
hahahaha….I was …er…..’SAVING’ it in the very bottom of the drawer all these months…….I only began to suspect you as the sender when you mentioned this to Joe the other day—-I said “hey maybe it was Boo….”
I got my bottle today and it’s even better sprayed than dabbed.
Thank you Boo….your enablers shiny stone is on its way…..
Ooooooooooooooooooooh! Daisy bought a bottle of Amarige Harvest Mimosa. Tsk Tsk. Well… one of us *had* to. 😮
OMG Joe—you wouldn’t believe the spree I’ve been on! Bad even for me! (which is saying something!) …..I’ve now placed a moratorium on perfume spending! (needless to say, I’ll be sending you some samples as soon as all my packages arrive.)
If you were wondering, I do have a sample of that Amarige Mimosa. It’s de-lurvely.
Dang! I knew I was going to get busted for that one!
I never have liked anything with more than a couple stray molecules of mimosa….then some perfume angel sent me a sample….which I essentially ignored for MONTHS ( mimosa, ya know?) then I finally tried it —the blame for this is squarely on Dolly Dagger and her grab bag friday idea!— so then (you all know this part of the story) the lemmings were wakened….and a bottle was found….**insert maniacal laughter here**
Now you need to try some Farnesiana and Mimosaique.
baby steps, my dear, baby steps 😉
Victory! 😀 So glad you love it too. That one was my first perfumista discovery, and it haunted me for a year. But when I went back to get it, only then did I discover it was an LE…and the ebay search was on. Happily, even with shipping from the UK, it wound up being cheaper than the price here *before* the tax.
Nice score!
Absolutely! I think my bottle (still sealed in cellophane) ended up being around $70-73 USD ….I’m not at all sure what it cost when it was available here when it was first released….but I was pretty happy just to get it.
The truest mimosa scent is the Diptyque home fragrance. I once did a double-take in a SpaceNK store: they had sprayed some around and I really *really* thought there was a bunch of mimosa somewhere. I have tried several others, but there’s always some note in there that detract from the real thing.
I lived on the French Riviera for a long time: I miss being able to smell mimosa everywhere at the end of winter.
Thanks for the recommendation (and now the day dreams of spending a summer on the French Riviera–sigh.)
yes, French Riviera….double sigh……
The smell of mimosa brings the memories from Womens’ Day in USSR. The first flower you could get in early March.
Daisy, can you describe Harvest Mimosa? I don’t think I’ve ever smelled any mimosa perfume…
You’re so enriched, Daisy! And I’ve always loved how you help enrich others, too. You’re a natural zookeeper.
you have no idea! dogs, cats, fish, random opossum…..and when J was little—several kids every day ( I swear, I only have the one of my own!) It IS a zoo….. usually I just throw food….
At least at the zoo they have (I’m assuming) drains in the floors so you can just hose them down. Sometimes I think it wouldn’t be so bad to have that arrangement at home.
that is why God invented garden hoses…..
I’m enjoying a dab of Amarige Mimosa Harvest right now, (lots of love to Daisy!). I aspire to dress like this perfume smells.
And how would that be? A summery dress with a cotton batiste skirt blowing in the breeze, maybe?
HOW GREAT IS THAT?!?! Angie, I love your posts so much … honestly, though, I think my poodle must be anosmic. He seems utterly bored with my scents. Maybe he’s just jaded.
Also I think the big cats would love Parlux Animale. That will stop anyone and anything in its tracks. The girls’ math tutor used to wear it. You could smell it for two days after. I think it’s civet, castoreum, oil drum, dead dog and some white florals, maybe a little patch.
Maybe some zebra poop and blood sicle mixed in? I’ve never smelled Parlux Animale, but with a name like that how could the animals refuse?
What a fun article! So interesting. I think Tigress is an excellent suggestion for the big cats. 🙂 One of my cats doesn’t mind perfume at all, but my other one despises me when I have just put on any scent of any kind. I have yet to find a perfume they actually both *like* — though they do enjoy the smell of ice cream.
I am cringing at the thought of “blood sicles” !
Oh gosh. Maybe Pink Sugar would do the trick for the ice cream loving puss. Or maybe a vanilla scent?
Hee .. good suggestion! Or maybe something with a milk note, like CSP Matin Calin. LOL.
Yes!
Joined the chorus of love… This is a great argument, isn’t it? I’ve always thought that my perfume investigations stemmed from the same spring as erotic curiosity (at a lesser emotional cost).
As for the mad Siamese Jicky, she definitely enjoys fragrant enrichment: she smells scents strips, and often tries to steal them. Castoreum is a particular favorite… But there’s nothing she won’t sample, like mama.
That’s so funny! I can just imagine Jicky amassing a personal hoard of scent strips behind the couch. Her life is quite well enriched.
I think she’s working on something. Let’s just hope it’s not Eau de Dead Mouse.
Has to better than Secretions Magnifiques!
… have I ever told you about the time I was *sure* there was a dead mouse in the laundry room, and I kept looking and looking, and sure enough I finally figured out that the source of that terrible, mildewing smell was … Lutens Borneo.
Ok, I’ll go you one better on that dead mouse story. One day I was in a meeting room with two other people. The woman started saying there was a weird smell… She was sure it was a dead mouse, they’d just laid out some poison… I asked her to sniff my wrist. Yup, it was me, and a lavender-based niche fragrance whose name I’ve sworn to the perfumer I wouldn’t disclose.
I think the poor girl smelled something unusual in the room and just assumed that *that* was the smell of something dead.
To both of you: I bet it was Gris Clair! I bet it’s the Serge that’s garnering the dead animal comments! (God love him.)
Blasphemy, I tell you! Comparing Borneo to dead mouse! 😉
Nope, not a Serge. A lot muskier than that.
The idea of having a signature scent attracks me too. I almost suffer from the thought that I don’t have a signature… It’s like my life sometimes seems to be unnecessarily cluttered with enormous amount of perfume and it’s horrifying.
I’ve been long thinking about it and I think I actually could make Vol de Nuit or Bois des îles or even Eau des Merveilles my one and only fragrance… But I just cannot stop trying and buying other scents. Maybe my life actually is too boring for having a signature scent. And only happening women like Merylin Monroe or Carla Bruni can afford to have just one perfume on their cabinet.
By the way, at least we know now where to donate all our fragrances that we don’t like and don’t want anymore 🙂 To the nearest zoo.
As long as our local zookeepers are adequately enlightened!
I figure if we can wear different clothes every day, we can darn well wear a different fragrance! But I really do understand the appeal of having a signature scent.
I’m attracted to the signature scent concept too. My mother wore Yardley April Violets all her adult life. How annoyed she was when in the 1980s Yardley discontinued the dab-on and brought out the spray. She swore the fragrance had changed, and perhaps it had. She should know – she had been wearing it about 30 years already by then.
It seems to show such class, doesn’t it, to have the confidence to reach for just one fragrance each time. But I’ve never found a love like that. And anyway, I’m certain that if you wear the same thing each day you lose the ability to smell it, and keep applying more and more.
Sometimes in forums I read people say they have worn Mitsouko or Chanel No 5 or Opium every day for 25 years, and I just shudder, no matter how good the fragrance.
I shudder along with you. One part of me admires it, but the other is shocked at its lack of imagination and all the wonderful perfumes left behind.
OMG! WTF?? Tigers AND Perfume? FANTASTIC!
Do thank your zoo-keeper, mystery writer friend for her great info!
I’ve definitely thanked her. I really enjoyed her first mystery, too. The sequel (which I was lucky enough to read in draft) is coming out in July, and she’s working on #3 right now. I really think she needs to work some perfume into that one…
Angela, this was a particularly delightful article. Thanks! I would like to read your friend’s books, too.
I liked the books, how funny and suspenseful they were, but I was also interested in the inside view of how zoos are run.
Yes, I love it when a book takes me into a whole new world!
Now I’ve got to go find it.
Oh, thanks so much for this, it made my day. 🙂 My ginormous Maine Coon kitty has an old fashioned knotty pine porch to himself, with windows on three sides and lots of birds, squirrels, and bunnies to watch. He’s a big time nuzzler and seems to like whatever perfume I wear. For an indoor cat, he seems pretty well enriched to me.
He sounds better than enriched–he sounds completely adorable.
Forgot to say, that I will definitely be reading her book!
It’s a fun read! The paperback is coming out any time.
This article made my day too, thank you! Given how many more scent cells cats and dogs have, they must be able to smell each ingredient in a fragrance separately … I’ve always wanted to be able to smell like a bloodhound (ie be able to smell as well as one, not smell like one since they tend to smell kind of funky), but I figured I would probably go insane from the intensity.
Good point–smelling like you had the smelling abilities of a bloodhound would be so much better than smelling like an actual bloodhound.
The American Long-haired Perfume Hound?
Thank you so much for the “enrichment” concept. 🙂 I know feel better armed to deal with the perplexed questions I get. (“You collect what?” “You have how many bottles?”)
I really want to read your friend’s books. I love the concept of zoo mysteries. I wish I’d thought of that! Guess I’ll just have to stick with my dream of writing Harlequin novels. 😉
How about specializing in romantic zoo stories? You know, the handsome animal trainer, the pretty but shy girl who cleans the otter enclosure…
My coworkers are probably wondering why I’m sitting at my desk, laughing to myself. That’s the best. I really think I could do something with Otter Girl. I’ll have to work on that one.
Otter Girl? sounds like a super-hero…..one of the lesser known ones…
Sad, lonely Otter Girl with the Heart of Gold. Nurses lame otters in her off hours, lusts after the handsome animal trainer who never even knows she there. Until the day he’s sent to teach the otters a few new tricks…
Ooh! He could be the seal trainer! And then we they get married, the trained seals could be the flower girl and the ring bearer! I can just see them shimmying down the aisle, flippers a’ flappin’, making their little “aart aart” sounds. And then we the bride and groom go to kiss, a seal will stick his head in between them to kiss the groom.
Yes yes yes! And they could throw fish down the aisle instead of flowers!
“True Zoo Romances”!
Excellent!
OMG! does this make the perfume houses our Zookeepers? 🙂
Great article! Cheers.
P
Just zookeeper’s aides! I mean, as long as we’re animals, why not?
Just put her first novel into my cart on Amazon – it sounds great!
Miss Kitty – I have already developed the persona of my Harlequin romance heroine. Her name is Tessa Tunbridge-Wells, and she sports jetty curls, saucy ankles (peeking out from beneath her lace-edged petticoats) and an alabaster bosom frequently heaving with emotion and barely repressed desire. She lives in Regency London, and has the hots for an Honorable, but I’m still working on all the cliches for his character.
I’m there! Let me know when you’ve got a publisher lined up, and I’ll read it for sure. I’m sure you can work in Bath, a snobbish Dowager, a nosy vicar, and a carefree younger sister.
don’t forget the aristocratic, but secretly impoverished rake who has nefarious plans for her virtue! (and her family fortune!)
He’s a must!
Oh, that sounds like fun!
Can’t wait to find out what fragrance she spritzes on that heaving alabaster bosom! 😉
Tocade…….
Or maybe some Fleurs de Rocailles?
No, no, she sounds virtuous.
Probably ends up with the vicar’s cousin, new in town.
careful…..vicar’s cousin might end up being the aforementioned unscrupulous rake (he’s an embarrassment to the family, really)
Virtuous?? Mals do we need to review the finer points of “virtuous”?? She sounds like trouble waiting to happen to me! That’s why I went straight to Tocade! With all that heaving bosoms going on, I’m sure her panties are just about to fall off….and become lost….
I agree. However, it is nice (for the most part) to be able to associate one single scent with a particular person or moment in your life. Unless an ex-boyfriend breaks up with you and totally ruins any association you had with a favorite men’s scent. Or there is one man that you are very attracted to and then you smell the same cologne on an elderly man next to you on the bus. Oh well. I like to have different scents for different occasions. One for work, one for Easter, etc.
I’ve had to give up a few fragrances for just that reason.
Still, there’s plenty out there to enrich me!
Interesting article. Despite my expectation that these would drive him wild, my cat Newman could care less when I wear animalic scents containing musk, civet, or castoreum. On the other hand, he absolutely adores scents related to umbellifers such as angelica, caraway, cumin, anise, and especially dill, which he will devour happily, dried or fresh. He might glare sullenly when I wear Muscs Koublai Khan…. but if I wear Yatagan or Arabie, he dances around me.
That is fascinating!
Oddly, my husband reacts the same. MKK = yeck; Arabie = yum. The males of both species apparently agree…..
I wonder if they relate to catnip somehow?
That’s what I was wondering. Or perhaps they’re just “digestifs” for felines? Cats like to nibble blades of grass, too.
Dogs, too. Good point.
Catnip is in the mint family, I think. But the effect is the same!
I too have wanted to have a signature scent adn back in HS and college, I would just wear one fragrance for awhile, then antoher, but that is simply not as much fun!
My brother works for th SD zoo and I have donated some perfumes to be used with the big cats there. And it isn’t just for cats – I’ve got a case of the Mondays today, so I went to the mall at lunch, got 2 samples from Sephora, spritzed a bunch of others, and bought a mini from Crabtree & Evelyn and am feeling quite enriched, as I am sitting back in the cubicle farm.
I’m feeling enriched just hearing about it!
Oh, great post Angela! I need as much enrichment as I can get!!
You bet–we all do!
Vol de Nuit is my favorite, but am saving what little is left of the parfum (which has turned slightly). As for cats, my 15-year-old rescue (got him at age 10) likes lick my inner elbows and wrists at night after head-butting me and draping himself over my head in bed, but haven’t noticed which fragrances he prefers. My past cats weren’t interested in the scent I wore, and my two 13-year old dogs aren’t either. Dogs want my face or feet….
Your face and feet must be the best scents of all!
I adore Vol de Nuit. Such a gorgeous scent.
I don’t know how you guys always manage to find the absolute perfect picture to go with whatever article you post, but you do.
Anyways, I have two cats and they always turn their nose up at fragrance. My dresser is near my bed and they are frequently on the bed watching me so I have to bed careful not to spray my perfume in their faces. But I have held my wrists up to them to smell and they literally turn away from me.
Robin chooses the images for my posts. Isn’t she great at it? I always love seeing what she comes up with.
I can see perfectly in my mind your cats watching you go through your morning routine, including the perfume. Maybe a little eau de catnip would get them interested.
LOL, like my cats need another reason to act crazy.
My ‘little’ wild cat has enjoyed my foray into the scent world. She will grab my hand and smell my wrist when something I’ve applied catches her fancy. And even though she smells wonderful on her own, I love it when we end up sharing a scent. She seems to particularly like L’Eau du Desert Marocain. I wonder if I should start scenting her kitty beds with perfume…. And then I will qualify for a twelve step perfumaholic program.
What a sweet kitty! I love smelling my perfume on my pets. L’Air would be wonderful to smell on a little feline.
Fascinating article Angela! Thanks! The only interest my cats show in perfume is to knock my sample vials onto floor and just roll them around. *Sigh*
Oh yes, I can imagine that. My cat is more of a string cat, but I’ve had cats in the past who loved batting things around. Perfume samples would be perfect.
Great article, Angela, and great conversation, everyone!
Decades ago I had a Siamese cat who would climb all over me if I was eating asparagus. This finally makes sense to me after all those years, because she was quite bored, unfortunately, and asparagus have such an unusual smell, don’t they?
one of my cats adores asparagus! whenever I’m preparing asparagus I give her a stalk—-I cut it lengthwise so she can lick it and lick it and lick it! She also likes mushrooms but I’m not sure if mushrooms are okay for cats so I keep an eye out that she doesn’t swipe one.
Fascinating! There must really be something interesting in asparagus!
That must be it. I’ve heard people say asparagus is strong enough to mess with wine, so I guess it could be intriguing to a cat, too.
How very timely! Just the other day my son and I went to see a presentation by a wolf conservation center — including an actual wolf — and the guy mentioned doing perfume enrichment for the wolves. Naturally, when it came time for the Q&A, my hand shot up: what perfumes? He said the wolves’ tastes change; this particular wolf had been really into Axe for a while, then moved on to something by Bulgari (he couldn’t remember which). So the enrichment obviously works — their taste in perfume has definitely improved!
adolescent male wolf? Ha! and yes, it appears the wolf’s taste is improving! 🙂
My thought exactly!
That’s hilarious! Axe! Bulgari is a definite step up, taste-wise and price-wise.
I love this! My cats are fascinated by perfume, especially the good stuff. You should have seen their reaction when my bottle of vintage My Sin arrived! 🙂
How funny! When I think of the gorgeous ads featuring a black cat, it seems very appropriate.
Hi Angela: I just wanted to briefly say that this was a great topic to think about — how stimulating our sense with various smells really does enrich us and probably excites brain pathways that otherwise become stuck in a rut and underused.
I find that some of the most rigorous mental gymnastics come into play in the following situation: I dab a bit of something on my arm, and then quite a bit of time later… be it thirty minutes or an hour or several hours, I’ll smell my skin but can’t remember exactly what I had put on. My neurons do backflips trying to come up with it… it’s like when one is searching for a word but can’t think of it. It’s very interesting to keep smelling the fragrance in question and trying to pin it down — first by trying to identify a note or some other clue and then finally coming up with the name of the sample. I have to think that it’s great mental exercise, though it can be so frustrating at times!
Thanks for the food for thought! May we all enrich ourselves frequently — with fragrance and otherwise!
That happens to me, too! Sometime after lunch I’ll do a mental tour of my perfume cabinet trying to figure out which bottle I grabbed–I’ll sniff and think, it’s one of the green leathers, not too soapy, etc. until I remember.
Great post 😀
Thank you!
Thanks for another great post! Your writing keeps me coming back for more. (And, I appreciate any additional justification for the amount of money I spend on perfume. Feelings of guilt wave over me every once in a while when I think that I should put that money into a savings account for my daughter’s education…or something.)
Instead, you’re enriching your daughter! You’re sharpening her brain so she gets more scholarships.
Yes, she certainly gets to try a variety of scents! Until she was about six months of age I didn’t wear much perfume – the breast milk/baby smell was enjoyable anyway, at least for me – but I never really worried about her not knowing my own smell, which is an excuse some mothers give for not wearing perfume. They don’t want to admit they don’t like perfume, I think.
Oh, how funny! The cattery we use plays Radio 2 throughout the day to its feline guests, but this takes the biscuit!
: – )
It’s very thoughtful, I agree!
A fascinating post-I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each comment. Wish there was a raccoon perfume repellent-they roam around my yard making their weird clicking noises and eat my kitty’s food:(. I’m going to check out the book. I’m also going to read Ann’s books!
well, if you ever find a raccoon repellent : do share the info. I am sick to death of the local raccoons making free and easy with my birdfeeders at night! Darn raccoon can eat an amazing amount of sunflower hearts in a single visit —and to add insult to injury—he then likes to dump the whole feeder on the ground and kick it around!
Tell me about it! I quit feeding the birds. They also took the veggie tray off my outdoor grill and pulverized it w their razor sharp teeth. Maybe I’ll pour out the rankest old perfume I have in a bowl of sunflower seeds…
Raccoons creep me out with their sharp teeth and little fingers. They’re kind of scary, really.
scratch off the next to last sentence:)
I love your post. This is so cool and so true! My boyfriends job involves going into many different houses in a day and he once met someone who had a big cat sanctuary in their backyard. They were all rescue cats I believe. They even gave my boyfriend a spray of perfume on his hand and the cats just rubbed their faces all over it. OH, so adorable. Unfortunately, he didn’t take note of the perfume. Can you imagine being a perfumista in that house though?
Also, I have heard that mountain lions really love perfume, especially anything animalic. So maybe it’s a good idea to lay off the fumes if you’re going on a nature hike in mountain lion territory.
Nice warning about avoiding perfume while camping! I’d love to have friendly housecats snuggling up to me, but mountain lions? I don’t think so.
My dogs usually ignore whatever scent I’m wearing, although my yorkie likes to sniff packages before I open them. My cat seems to like almost any scent I wear, though she was particularly intrigued by vintage Tigress (probably the aldehydes).
Tigress just seems like such a good fit because of the name!
Oh, I wish I’d seen this post when it was new! I have a large black cat who LOVES perfume. I first caught him rolling around on some magazine perfume inserts, and then he found my box o’samples. I have to leave it on the floor where he can get to it, because otherwise he leaves a swath of destruction in his wake in his quest to rub against it and roll in the samples. It’s actually embarrassing to watch. There’s drooling and stuff. He does the same thing with the spice rack, if I don’t stop him in time. It’s reassuring to know that the big cats like perfume, too.
It sounds like your cat has a good bit of tiger in him! A kitty after my own heart.