Category: Cats

Cleaning Tools

I knew Dash didn’t at all appreciate my vacuum cleaner, but I didn’t expect him to kill it.

To be fair, it’s just the brush assembly that gave out, and it’s because Dash is a medium-haired cat and sheds, not because he actually did anything to it.

Apparently cat hair was getting into one end of the brush assembly and collecting between the bearing and the cap on the end. I’d noticed a faint burning smell, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from so I ignored it. Then the weekend before last I had the vacuum on and I was cleaning up around the litter boxes with the hose when suddenly it started rattling and shaking horribly. I took it apart and discovered the brush wasn’t fixed on its axle, but I didn’t disassemble the brush assembly until the replacement arrived today.

Here’s the mass of cat hair that was between the bearing and the cap on the end of the axle:

Here’s the bearing (if you look closely you can see part of the gap between the edge of the bearing and the wall of plastic that’s supposed to hold it in place):

The friction of turning against the cat hair caused it to heat up and eventually melted the plastic around the bearing so the bearing became loose and was no longer holding the brush steady. At that point the brush was wobbling far enough to rub on its surroundings, which is why I found flakes of burnt plastic on the carpet when the bearing finally went.

I ordered a new brush assembly from Bissel last weekend to repair it. While I was ordering I went ahead and ordered a spotbot too since I’d been considering it for a while (I have white carpet) and it was on sale and even got me free shipping for my entire order.

The spotbot came in on Wednesday (it was shipped from a different place than the brush assembly), so I immediately tried it on a spot that Talore threw up a hairball on a couple weeks ago and I hadn’t managed to clean it as well as I wanted:

Apparently it’s important that the carpet actually be clean around the spot that you’re cleaning. I knew that section of carpet was darker, but I thought it was a stain and it’s been like that since I got the house. Now I’m thinking the carpet just wasn’t cleaned thoroughly before they sold the house to me, so I’ve got a clean spot that’s obvious in the middle of a big dirty patch.

It also looks to me like the spotbot doesn’t do a great job of cleaning around the edges of the spot it’s placed on, so with the dirty carpet it collects a bit of dirt around the edges where it was already dirty and cleans the middle. I’m inclined to accept it, since the spotbot wasn’t made for cleaning large sections of carpet. Despite that, I started just using the spotbot to clean the large section of carpet, but I’m not sure it’s worth the time and trouble.

Allergies

My allergies started acting up late last week. I let it go for a few days, then Sunday I decided to give both cats a bath. I’m not allergic enough to cats for it to bother me normally, but when there’s something else I’m allergic to getting rid of pet dander (that’s on the cats) helps a bit.

I figured I’d start with Dash to get the painful one out of the way. It’s a good thing I’ve got sliding glass panels instead of a shower curtain in my shower, because otherwise I’d have had to use both hands to try to hold him and probably would have ended up with a large number of scratches. As it was, Dash was crying so loudly that I let him go without getting much of him wet (it was night and I didn’t want the neighbor coming to see what I was drowning).

At that point I went and caught Talore and stuck her in the tub. She cried a little bit (and Dash replied through the door), but she was pretty good about it like she used to be. When I was rinsing her I even tried using the shower head sprayer (which detaches and is on a hose) and she didn’t mind that nearly as much as me dumping water on her with a cup. When I opened the door to let a quite damp Talore out of the bathroom Dash was out of sight, but as Talore walked to the living room he came out to make sure she was ok.

I figured Dash not getting a bath wouldn’t be a problem since he doesn’t sleep on me and doesn’t sit in my lap while I’m reading. I wasn’t counting on him sleeping within two feet of my face last night. I woke up and couldn’t breath through my nose and I felt generally miserable. Dash got a bath today when I got home.

Actually, I guess it was more of a shower. He still spent the entire time pawing at the sliding glass panels (and had one partially opened, but he didn’t realize how he did that), but it was early evening so I wasn’t worried about anyone hearing since it wasn’t as quiet. I don’t think I used enough shampoo and his hair shed water pretty well, but I’m hoping it at least did some good. It probably didn’t improve his feelings on being picked up or held, but he let me follow him around brushing him, and it seems like he dried out faster than Talore does.

Anyways, since I haven’t posted in so long I’ve got a bunch of pictures:

Dash climbing the 2×6 we wrapped in sisal rope for him to climb:

The best of many blurry pictures of Dash carrying toys around:

First snow of the year (September 14th):

It rained all day the day I took the picture of the snow, but apparently it was cold enough for a short time and the snow blew into a sheltered spot on the back step of my house so it didn’t get washed off.

Cat Pictures

I’ve been meaning to post these as I take them, but never got around to it.


Talore used to sleep on that book case while I was reading when it was down stairs, and when I was upstairs she’d be where she could see through the railing on the loft. When I moved the book case upstairs she started sleeping behind the sofa, but now she’s found it again.


Dash wishes he was cool enough to get the top shelf. He never goes there except when Talore already has the top, but at least he hasn’t tried clearing off that shelf yet. Apparently he’s gotten on other shelves and climbed behind the books because I’ve found books piled on the floor a few times now.


Nearly every morning when I get up Dash is curled up in the sink in my bathroom.