Valerian cat toy, work of the devil?

[strawberrysalsa]

My cat loves his cat nip toys and licks them to death quickly. I ordered some new bits and pieces and saw a Valerian filled felt 'lobster tail' toy. In my innocence I thought it would be similar to catnip, i.e. I couldn't smell it but he could. Boy was I wrong.

My cat absolutely adores the new toy and has already licked it into a fuzzy mess but the smell of the Valerian is revolting....think sweaty feet mixed with rancid armpits and potentially rotting lobster tail!

I can't bin the toy because I'm soft and my cat loves it but really, this stuff should come with a warning!

Sorry in advance for not attaching a photo of my utterly adorable cat but he is completely black so any photo of him just looks like a cat shaped shadow.

I love valarian, natures Valium (if you take enough).
But yes, it absolutely honks.

i sometimes give my cats a valerian teabag to rip apart and roll around the floor in. Its their absolute favourite

I suppose its better than playing with a live mouse under my bed at 1am which another cat did....until she got bored and let the mouse wander off!

I didn't get a lot of sleep that night, or for a few nights as the cat searched for the mouse her favourite toy.