Fraidy Cat...

Peyser, our goldish-colored cat, is a big wimp. He's pretty much scared of everything. Especially the vacuum cleaner. Now, this fact alone isn't very surprising, but his response to my vacuuming is more bizarre than our other two cats' responses. Snugs just sits quietly in a chair and ignores it; Abby runs into the kitchen and ignores it; Peyser finds a cubby-hole and keeps it under constant surveillance--usually.

Since Peyser is usually the cause of the vacuuming (he's been shedding a lot due to the hot weather), I've been having to vacuum more frequently, which in turn, scares the crap out of him more frequently.

Peyser has taken to hanging out in the bathroom for some reason. Probably because it's the coolest room of the house, and also, he seems to be partial to napping on the soft toilet seat. While vacuuming today, I thought it might be a good idea to sweep up the furballs he's created in the bathroom, as well (not realizing that he was napping on the toilet). We have a small bathroom, and the toilet is hidden by the door which opens inward only as far as the toilet will allow. So I came in, sweeping up the various hairballs while still standing in the hall. When I made my way into the bathroom to continue sweeping around the toilet, I saw Peyser, frozen on the toilet seat with large eyes. I tried to tell him it was okay and that I was just cleaning, but he wasn't having any of it. In fact, he jumped into the bathtub, and from the safety of this new post, proceeded to hiss at the vacuum cleaner. Twice. Finally, I decided that the bathroom floor was just going to have to be good enough for the time being, because I really didn't want to scare him any more than necessary. So I took the vacuum back into the hall so I could finish up later. As soon as I did, Peyser rocketed out of the bathroom, knocking down anything that got in his path (almost including me, but I regained my balance).

If only a pet company made some sort of silent pet-friendly vacuum to help the shedding problem... Or maybe I should just brush him more ;)