I have actually noticed a similar thing going on with olives. Our cat would go crazy over them, and I don't think it had anything to do with mosquitos.
Sometimes I'm in a rush and don't shower out of the lap pool, I physically have to keep my cat away from chlorinated items. She comes up to me and will just start chewing on my chlorinated hair, it's crazy. FWIW, she couldn't care less about catnip.
I had a few cats that simply went into ecstasy when I had hands with residues of bleach, not the perfumed one, just ordinary bleach, they would endlessly self-stroke against my hands, purring loudly.
Had the same experience many years ago when I used to swim regularly. The cat would not only love to lick and chew chlorinated hair, but also heavily snuzz my discarded towel.
As a child my cat would favour drinking water from our chlorinated pool rather than her water bowl. Interesting to read another anecdote about cats and chlorine. They say curiosity killed the cat, but maybe I’ll take the gamble and see if I can find an answer as to why!
Growing up we had cats that loved to chase olives around the kitchen floor. They would also gnaw on decorations made of olive wood, so those had to be put away.
