The thing is, our current vacuum does a fine job. The benefit of the Roomba would have been the labor saving aspect. Without the automation we have no real justification for a new vacuum.

Are you channeling scaeagles?

My Dyson rocks. Never tried to vacuum up a cat, though.

Good luck if you do- my cats disappear when the vacuum comes out.

We have the DC14 Animal (and three [currently four] cats). Well worth the money, especially since it can be easily disassembled and cleaned.

We also have a Roomba and Scooba for our wood floors, and while their performance isn't what I'd call great it is definitely good enough between semi-annual major housecleanings.

In the name of science I would suggest you start small with say a mouse or chick, if that goes well you can move up to a gerbil or hamster and finally on to kittens and full grown cats.

Please document your trials with photos. No, wait a second, scratch that. Take video.

Tango watched from the semi-safe location of her cat tree. That is, until I vacuumed the thing with the amount of hair I vacuumed you'd think she'd be bald!

Mmmmmmmmmmm loveable black boy kitty sounds wonderful.

I believe there may be laws against such things. Plus then I would actually have to be close enough to a cat (assuming earlier trials provided acceptable results) to attempt to vacuum it up, and that's just not going to happen.

James Dyson could sell me anything with that accent of his.
;)