Who cares about thunderstorms - what do your cats do when you vacuum!!

[LynneSin]

I swear my cats act like the Apocalypse is happening anytime I vacuum. After about 10 minutes of the most annoying yowling it'll be at least a day until I see either of those furballs in public. I won't even vacuum in the kitchen or laundry room (where the litter box is located) because that will guarentee piddle pee pools somewhere else in the house (I sweep and mop instead - much quieter).

[taterguy]

1. As if I ever vacuum

Or have any cats.

[LynneSin]

2. *** scratches Taterguy off her DU World Tour ***

Wait are there DUSTBUNNIES back there???!!!

[HopeHoops]

3. They all scatter except my big boy (who's 15 now) - he just puts his ears back.

Getting him to move off of the couch isn't easy to begin with. You can tell he's irritated, but he knows it will be over soon and he can resume his perpetual nap.

[GoCubsGo]

6. My dearly departed old man got like that at around that age.

I don't know if his hearing was going, or if he just didn't care any more. I guess he finally figured the thing wasn't going to hurt him. If he wasn't up on the sofa or bed, he would just saunter off, rather than running away like he did when he was young.

[HopeHoops]

8. Yeah, my big boy saunters. The 4-month old kittens are sure they can fly. He used to.

When he was a kitten, he climbed me like a tree to sit on my shoulder. That hurt. Peter, my male kitten, likes to jump up on the back of the head and climb onto my shoulder while I'm "having a constitutional". They're very similar. Peter's sister, Tink, is a daemon from hell, but at least she leaves me along while I'm taking a dump. They all have their own personalities. The other two cats are petite females and belong to two of my daughters. They're getting up there in age, but they don't show it. The older one is 14 now and I won't be shocked if she hits 25. As with dogs, the bigger cats don't live as long. I'm amazed he's made it as long as he has. He'll go out purring.

[AnneD]

4. Remember the cartoons...

where the Roadrunner makes a quick exit and there is a cloud of smoke.......I see a cloud of cat hair and no trace of the cat for at least 30 minutes after I finish. The dogs see it as invading their turf though and don't let up until I finish. I have to admit, they do a better job of vacuuming up food spills than my vacumn cleaner.

[GoCubsGo]

5. Mine hides under the bed.

Her fear of vacuums actually comes in very handy. Sometimes she sits by the door and whines endlessly for me to let her outside. Or, she'll stand next to me and meow ceaselessly for god knows what reason. If the vacuum is handy, I just stand up, take the handle, hit the handle release pedal, and off she goes. I don't even have to turn it on. Peace at last! Just the threat of turning it on is usually enough.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. They vanish. I don't even see them running. They're just gone.

I think they dart into one of their little portals into that alternate universe they occasionally like to visit.

[MiddleFingerMom]

9. Only once have I had more than one cat. Greycat was a young, muscular knucklewalker.

.
.
.
Blackcat was a tiny, frail, fragile, somewhat arthritic old cat who was the take-no-shit-wapwapwap
absolute Empress of their domain. She wouldn't really budge from her napping spot on the couch when
I started vacuuming, but Greycat would just... well, disappear was a good word -- and for hours and
hours after an apartment-hosing.
.
Several times, I searched literally EVERYWHERE in that apartment... opening closed closet doors, the
oven, the refrigerator, looking in storage boxes that she might have slipped into. As far as I could tell,
she had gone to another dimension. I was considering that seriously.
.
.
.
Once, I started vacuuming in the dining room. We had a breakfast nook there that extended to some
of the kitchen counter space. Through that "window", I saw Greycat jump up vertically where there
was NOTHING that she could have landed on... but she just didn't fall back down.
.
I was mostly really starting to believe that she had actually FOUND some inter-dimensional portal as
I went into the kitchen. It took me awhile to notice that one of the acoustical tiles in the kitchen
ceiling was a LITTLE out-of-place. I got a ladder and lifted that tile and stuck my head into the
"crawlspace" created by the dropped ceiling. Sure enough, Greycat had seen it and had been able
to leap/squeeze up into the space (with the tile dropping back into place) and she had figured out
a way to lift it so she could get back down.
.
Nasty dirty dusty place, but preferable to the invasion of the dreaded Suckmonster down below
(and my vacuum cleaner).
.
.
.

[DFW]

10. The same thing they do when I set off dynamite in the kitchen

Nothing. I don't have any cats (wife is allergic).

[Archae]

11. My two cats when I switch on the vaccuum cleaner...

[Wait Wut]

12. 3 kitties...all different.

The one girl with the brain damage, just meows at me to stop.
My boy becomes terrified and will run off to whatever high spot he can reach.
His smaller sister is ridiculously protective of him so she'll stalk the vacuum cleaner. If it gets too close to where he's hiding...she attacks it and then goes to him and gives him a reassuring face wash.

[turtlerescue1]

13. Petey likes to "help"/direct, but when the vac starts he's GONE!

[mockmonkey]

14. Most scatter...

and run under the bed or behind the couch. The older ones just watch from a chair unless I get too close with the vacuum. Captain, our largest cat, is freaked out so I carry him to the bedroom and put him under the covers until I finish. He used to cover himself but I kind of like doing this now.


<a href="http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r38/mockmonkey1/?action=view¤t=CaptainandJake.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Captain is the one inside the cat tube, the other is Jake.