Phaedra and Ivan Idzan have taken in a number of rescued cats over the years. 

Currently, the Salmon Arm couple have three: Mini-Wheat, Chex and Adam (short for Adams Lake). Each were rescued by Shuswap Paws Rescue Society, an organization Phaedra volunteers with. Another thing the three cats have in common: a love for catnip. In particular, the fresh catnip grown in the Idzan's yard, which the couple dry and sell under the name Thunders Crack Catnip. Though currently not available in local stores, the Idzan's have sold the catnip as a way of supporting Shuswap Paws. A batch recently made available on Shuswap Paws' Facebook page was quick to sell out. 

The Idzan's package the catnip in little paper baggies, each containing 15 ounces of mostly dried leaves, which are placed in repurposed plastic cases through which cats can smell, but not access (or tear open) the product within. Each case has a home-made label with the name Thunders Crack Catnip, and a picture of the late Thunder, a cat remembered, in part, for contributing to the propogation of nepeta cataria throughout the Idzan family's yard.

Buyers are urged to keep the plastic cases. On them there is also an email address through which replacement baggies of catnip can be ordered. 

Sharing the legend behind Thunders Crack Catnip, Ivan explained the cat had belonged to a neighbour's daughter. Both the daughter and neighbour had moved away, with the mother renting out her house. She'd attempted to rehome the cat, said Ivan, but "he was quite literally the cat that came back." 

The renters looked after the cat until one winter, when it made its way to the Idzan's car port. 

"The kids were feeding him and the next thing you know this grey cat moves in," said Ivan. The Idzan's son, Alex, gave the cat the name Thunder, "because he was kind of grey and grim like, thundercoulds." 

After being adopted by Thunder, the Idzan's found themselves at a garden nursery where the decided to buy a catnip plant. 

"We had one little four-inch pot with the catnip in it that we watered and grew outside," said Ivan. "We set it down on the ground and Thunder took ownership of it. It grew and it sprouted and it seeded and he regularly ate it, molested it and otherwise guarded it."

Thunder's care and attention to the plant led to its seeds dropping in a crack in the paved walkway outside the Idzan's home. From that crack, the catnip began to grow and eventually spread around the yard. 

Phaedra and Ivan said Thunder lived to be 18 years old. 

A number of years ago, with Phaedra volunteering with Shuswap Paws, Ivan had the idea to do something with the catnip to help the organization. 

"We鈥檝e got this all growing here, why don鈥檛 we dry some?," recalled Ivan. 

Proof of the potency of the Idzan's catnip came during a visit with a friend in Whitehorse. Overnight, the friend's cat, Percy, managed to get into a plastic baggie of catip the Idzan's had brought for him. 

"The next morning we came down to find Percy had acquired the bag, ripped it open and ate the whole thing," recounted Ivan. "He was stoned for about three weeks. We kind of went 'well, we鈥檝e got something here that cats really like!'"

The product's name, with the deliberate homynym, is also the name of the crack in the pavement that catnip cotinues to grow from. 

Money raised by Shuswap Paws goes in part towards costly vetrenarian visits and surgeries needed for the rescued cats and dogs. 

The Idzan's noted another perk of the catnip is that it's pollenator friendly.

"The the bees love it because there are so many flowers on it," said Ivan. 

For more information, email thunderscrackcatnip@telus.net.