In discussing my cat Ivy’s foibles over a few blog posts, I don’t believe I shared with you another one of her talents. She is a dancer! She can do the conga… Step step kick, step step kick… And always, right after the litter box.
What this means is that not only does she have great rhythm and can count, but her splendid choreography leaves a noticeable trail of cat litter throughout the basement.
In the first few months, I dealt with it the best way I knew how, the dustpan and the broom, but after a while it was turning into a bit of a production to keep her dance floor clean.
A couple of months later, I bought her a little exercise ball, one that releases kibble every few steps as she pushes it around with her head or her paw. Once I figured out that this was one of her favourite toys and she played with it all the time, picking up the litter sprinkles became a more time-sensitive priority as the thought of her eating kibble breaded in used cat litter seemed gross to me. There had to be an easier way to stay on top of the fallout from Ivy’s “after parties” around the litter box.
While watching TV one evening I saw an advertisement for a hand vacuum and thought… That’s it! A hand vac!
Up to that point, I had never owned one. Having always been a bit of a neat freak, spills of any kind were often cleaned up before they even hit the floor. Plus given that it was always just me in the house or the apartment, no kids, no pets, I was usually pretty careful in not letting spills happen in the first place. So I never really became acquainted with the hand vac until Ivy’s recent rehearsals for “Dancing With the Stars”.
My first inclination was to get a budget priced version of one, just to try it out and see. No sense in buying the Cadillac hand vac, just for the cat. My nearest WalMart had a great deal for a basic Dirt Devil hand vac for just under $30… What a great deal! Sold!
As soon as the little Dirt Devil was fully charged, I tried it out on Miss Ivy’s loving sprinkles of litter. Within seconds, her dance floor was as clean as a whistle and when I checked the filter, not only did it get the cat litter, it also caught a good bunch cat hair that wasn’t apparent to the naked eye. What a brilliant device! I was liking this machine already.
A week or two later, I was due for a trim to streamline my clipper cut, for a more aerodynamic hairstyle and shave seconds off my running time. It was then that I realized I could borrow Ivy’s vacuum to clean up the hairs from the bathroom counter and floor. Again, what a revelation! Why hadn’t anyone mentioned this miracle device to me before?
As you can imagine, I was starting to feel the power now and Ivy’s hand vac started getting used pretty frequently. The hand vac was getting used in every corner of the house and the car as well.
This was not only to my own benefit, but to Ivy’s as well since she has never been a huge fan of the big vacuum (she hissed at it once or twice after their initial meeting) but seemed able to basically tolerate the hand vac, so she appeared far less stressed around those quick clean ups.
In the same way that we need certain equipment to keep our kids into their favourite hobbies and sports, the Dirt Devil hand vacuum is turning me into a bit of a “Dance Mom” encouraging Ivy to try new and more ambitious dance routines as she steps out of the litter box. With the flick of a switch and a sweep of my vacuum arm, her dance floor is always clean and I don’t stress about her loving litter sprinkles tracking further into the house.
Thank you Dirt Devil!
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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André
It's the Journey 