As it was being rolled out and having its cord unwound, RJ started playing with the cord. Mr. Bond checked his headlong flight and came back to try to convey: that this was dangerous! We are supposed to run away! Come on, kid, listen to me!
It wasn’t until the vacuum was about to be turned on that Mr. Bond abandoned RJ to his fate.
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RJ ignored Mr. Bond, so absorbed was he in exploring this new object. But soon the noise drove him away, and now he eels out of the room as soon as it makes its appearance, just like most cats.
Cats do not care for noisy objects. The vacuum is probably the noisiest appliance we tend to use around the house, though they do not care for coffee grinders or whistling teakettles, either. But the vacuum has other features that makes it truly the Cat Godzilla.
It is big and it moves.
It moves everywhere, right at their level, roaring as it goes. We find it loud. Cats, with their better hearing, find it much louder. They usually aren’t around to see us if we suck up some drapes or pennies, but if they do, it only confirms their suspicions that the vacuum is something to be heartily avoided.
Which is probably just as well. I was vacuuming the couch near Smidget, who came off the streets as tough as they come. He was one of the few cats I’ve known who would make a point of not leaving when the vacuum came out, to keep his reputation for fearlessness intact. But as I was trying to nudge him aside to get that section of the couch, the hose, which I was using without an attachment, sucked up the tip of his tail.
He wasn’t hurt. But he did whip around with incredible swiftness, pinned the end of the tube to the couch, and gave it three sharp raps with his paw. Don’t ever do that again.
Of course, something smaller… that might not be frightening at all.
So we should respect our cat’s avoidance of the vacuum cleaner. Announce its imminent appearance. Give cats time to clear the room. As we go from room to room, turn off the vacuum and give them time to get past us.
It may seem amusing. But cats have good reason to avoid it.
Just as we would avoid Godzilla.
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There’s more ways to understand our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on WHY CATS DO THAT.
When I open the closet to take out the vacuum, Kill Kill hides under the bed until 20 minutes after I put it back in.
The first time kitten Byron saw the vacuum, Killsy ran and he jumped on it. As I vacuumed, he rode it around like I was his personal rickshaw driver. I thought that it was hilarious, but it should’ve been one of my first clues that he was almost completely deaf.
He doesn’t ride it anymore, but he follows it around.
Our Humphrey is not afraid of the vacuum cleaner – the only cat I’ve ever come across who doesn’t flee from it.
I remember when I was growing up my family had a pure bred Persian cat. She was white with blue eyes. A vacuum cleaner salesman came over, and noticed our cat sleeping on top of our huge stereo (back when they were big pieces of furniture). He said “I’m going to feel bad when I wake her up”. Little did he know that a lot of white blue eyed Persians (like ours) was deaf. He turned on the vacuum and obviously, she didn’t flinch.
Not all cats hate vacuum cleaners !
True, my first cat hated the thing absolutely but then I did not have experiene yet , but now we got 3 kittens at the same time and they were introduced to my vacuumer more slowly and I bought a special pet hair vacuum, which is great and less noisy. Except the turbo brush for the big carpets, but even they got used to that one, just never use that one on them as that is absolutely dangerous!!!
In the end one kitten rode on my shoulders where ever I cleaned and I can clean him too, the 2nd one really loves to be vacuumed too, he puts his nose in the brush when on, whether is sucks or not !!! And I brush him on his belly too and asks for more all the time and follows me around when I am cleaning the house for more sessions. The 3rd kitten is a bit frightened by nature but now got used too and I can even brush him softly with it as well, but only if he is in the mood for it. If not I leave him alone and so he is much better now with the big noisy thing ! Now we got a new 4th kitten and I slowly start the whole ceremony from the beginning. first get him used to brushing and then brushing with noise and sucking feeling ! It is a matter of patience and then you can accomplish a lot..
succes..