Your kitty may be making you kinky.
No, not your pussy (although the vagina wants what the vagina wants) - your actual cat. Or, specifically, a cat-borne disease that can be transferred to humans.
Most cat owners have heard of toxoplasmosis, a parasite that cats can get from eating infected prey. The parasite can survive nearly anything and is excreted in cat poop. It can cause birth defects in humans, which is why people are advised to stop cleaning the littler box while pregnant. Research has demonstrated that the sneaky little toxoplasmosis cooties can actually take up residence in their hosts’ brains and…do stuff.
In the most extreme cases, toxoplasmosis has been correlated with schizophrenia but there’s also some evidence that it can influence sexual desire. Scientists studying individuals in Slovakia and the Czech Republic asked 741 people with the infection and 5,087 without it about their sexual desires and behaviors. Infected individuals were "more often aroused by their own fear, danger, and sexual submission” according to finding published in Evolutionary Psychology.
Now, while the infected individuals liked the idea of group sex or BDSM, they didn’t actually participate in it more frequently than anyone else. Scientists think that’s because the parasite also affects novelty-seeking behavior. On the other hand, toxoplasmosis-infected women were more likely to have had sex with an animal and men were more aroused by thoughts of raping someone or being raped.
The cross-species sex is probably how some of the individuals actually got toxoplasmosis in the first place, say researchers.
All of this is not an argument against having pet cats, of course, though you might be wise to keep them inside so they don’t eat infected mice or birds and bring toxoplasmosis into the house. Also? Wear gloves when you clean the little box. Just because.
