Exercise in Futility | Chickens in the Road

Jun
14

When people find out that I have eight cats, sometimes they ask me how I handle all the cat hair. As if I must be an expert and I have some secret for dealing with the flying fluff. Well, yes, yes, I do, I have a secret and I’m not going to tell you. Okay, okay, here it is. I can’t believe I’m spilling this on the internet as it is highly valuable proprietary information. But I don’t want you to think that all I do all day is bake bread and cavort with my chickens. So when my dining room chairs start to look like this:

I get out a damp washcloth and rub the worst of it off.

I pick off the big fur clumps.

Now it’s time for the lint roller to fine-tune the situation.

Behold! A clean chair! I have eight dining room chairs and the cats are equal opportunity fur depositers, so just seven more to go. It takes a couple of hours to get them all really clean. Whew, that’s hard work, but so satisfying. I have clean chairs!

Cats love clean chairs.

I’m going to go throw myself off a cliff now.

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38 Responses
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6-14
5:32
am

Everyone loves a clean chair. Even kitties. Can you feel the love? :catmeow: xxoo

Carolyn A. - Reply
6-14
5:36
am

Wooden chairs is my solution, no cushions. Now I need a solution for clean clothes!

Kathleen in MI - Reply
6-14
7:20
am

I have begun to vacum my 2 cats – yes I said vacum. They are not brillant so they dont mind it. That really helps with the loose hair, because they have LONG LONG hair – they rather enjoy the experience I think!! LOL

You have GOT to stop over to my new blog – I dont have a pie porch, but I do have a funny story for you over there.

Make sure its a small cliff – You have goats to cavort with shortly!! LOL

Heidi - Reply
6-14
7:44
am

this time of year is horrible for cat hair, isn’t it? Well, come to think of it. it’s ALWAYS horrible for cat hair!

kacey - Reply
6-14
7:59
am

I love Cats!!!! :flying:

wkf - Reply
6-14
7:59
am

I have one cat and he is a fur factory all by him self. lol. He looks like your black cat in the picture. I have a rubber brush thing I got at Walmart for 3.99 I think. It was in the cleaning section. I use that to take pet fur off of all my fuiture. Works like a charm. The cat and dog dont mind a quick brush with it as well. lol.

Diane - Reply
6-14
8:24
am

Baking and Convorting with chickens… two of my favorite things. Cats are high up on the list too. How nice of you to clean the chairs for the cats. LOL!

Cyndi Lewis - Reply
6-14
8:27
am

Love cats, Loved this post and the comments as well!

Bertie - Reply
6-14
9:00
am

I have found 2 nmethods work for me. I drap my old towels across the seats of the chairs. Then you can wash all the hair off. And here is my secrect. I use the kitchen rubber gloves and drag it across the chairs Boy that really does the trick. No more hairs.
I once had a boyfriend that would not sit down in my house. He is gone, long time!!!!

Pat Sieler - Reply
6-14
9:02
am

That is neat! The getting the hair off thing, not the jumping off the cliff thing.

Kathryn - Reply
6-14
9:10
am

We have two cats that stay equally out and indoors. I still have hair on everything. Plus I’m allergic. LOL. I use the vacuum and it seems to take one hour alone on the couch.

Treasia - Reply
6-14
9:12
am

Know what else lint rollers work really well on? CATS!

Melissa's Cozy Teacup - Reply
6-14
9:20
am

I have two dogs and one cat who love clean couches too. Fur is the vain of my existence!

Shimmy Mom - Reply
6-14
9:28
am

Hey, if you are only dealing with the chairs, that is great. It is when they are on the beds, sofa, living room chair and rug that it becomes time consuming! I thought one was a lot, I could not imagine eight! Then again, my one is equivalent to almost three cats!
http://lifeislikechampagne.blogspot.com/

happyathome - Reply
6-14
10:00
am

We have the same problem, but only four indoor/outdoor kitties.

Remudamom - Reply
6-14
10:21
am

I have a friend who uses the rubber gloves to remove the hair, also.

Beckynsc - Reply
6-14
10:34
am

Rubber gloves work fantastically well.

sam - Reply
6-14
11:39
am

Well you just made me feel better because we have currently ten (!!) cats. But four are kittens and we’ll be giving them away so…really I only have six.

:cattail:

So I completely feel your pain. But I love my kitties. And they keep the rodent population down. :purr:

Karen Erickson - Reply
6-14
11:55
am

Excuse me! But now that you have the chairs so clean why don’t you cover the chairs with a cloth or light weight pillow.(polished cotton is good, it doesn’t hold on to the hair as much). Then you can wisk them off whem company comes. Just a thought. :catmeow:

farmlady - Reply
6-14
12:13
pm

Feathers are our problem..LOL Parakeet!

Donna - Reply
6-14
12:15
pm

I feel your pain. I have 6 (had 7) and one has long hair. I use all those methods mentioned depending on my mood. And cats will always find another place unless you live in a house with nothing soft lol.

catslady - Reply
6-14
12:28
pm

hey girl, this is my current plan of action against fur lined furniture. i got one of those furminator combs and those suckers really work well. then i got a new vacuum, one of the new ones for pet hair. the one i got is from bissell and it has a fierce suction-brush-comb attachment just for furniture. i saw another one in sam’s club. finally from target they carry HUGE lint rollers. they are the size of paint rollers. i keep one beside my bed, because at night i am apparently a animal magnet. the huge lint roller are good in a sewing room also, to keep the pins off the floor and out of little animal mouths.

oh yeah, my drycleaner loves the dog!

those new vacuums are really nice, they’re knock offs of dyson, but dyson doesn’t have the pet fur brush. you should have seen the fur ball i got off of my couch!

huggs,
margiesbooboo

margiesbooboo - Reply
6-14
1:08
pm

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

I LAUGH AT YOU

Princess THATS RIGHT THE PRINCESS THE ONE AND ONLY - Reply
6-14
1:25
pm

I wonder if you could use a “Furminator” on your cats? I know they work really great on dogs!

Jennifer Robin - Reply
6-14
1:25
pm

Wow…that was a lot of hair…….but I know it’s worth it. I love my cats. :hellokitty:

Kristen - Reply
6-14
2:32
pm

What we put up with! Yet, I don’t think any of us would give up any of our pets. They have us well trained!

Susan - Reply
6-14
3:20
pm

yes the furminator works on the cats too. i have one long hair and a short hair cat and a long hair dog. they also work on long haired princesses. the vacuum picked up alot of really long hair from my princess. she won’t let me try the furminator on her. picky i guess.

margiesbooboo - Reply
6-14
6:21
pm

I have five cats. Black, white, calico and gray hair on the chairs and on the back of the couch.
I will try your method of removing the hair.

Estella - Reply
6-14
6:31
pm

My cat likes to lounge on all the beds in the house. So I wash sheets and get lots in the dryer lint collector. Also she just started liking to be combed, so we’re doing that this summer.

Jodie - Reply
6-14
8:07
pm

Just recently I was expecting company so I took the towel off of the chair in the living room which I keep to collect “Sasha hair”. After all, she hadn’t been on that chair for a long time.

Sure enough, as soon as I removed the towel used so she doesn’t get hair on the good chair… she jumped on the chair and went to sleep.

No one can say cats aren’t smart.

Brenda@CoffeeTeaBooks&Me - Reply
6-14
9:42
pm

WHAT IS A FURMINATOR????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

TELL ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i’m losing my voice from screaming at 4-H camp it wuz fun though

Princess THATS RIGHT THE PRINCESS THE ONE AND ONLY - Reply
6-14
10:26
pm

I am not an animal person. I make no apologies for this. Each person has their own personal thing. I do remember when my children were small how hard it was to keep fur and hair off the furniture. When I got it clean, I put a towel over it until cat/dog pulled it off. I never heard of some of the things you ladies are talking about. Good luck with keeping things clean. Have a great evening and to all.

Fannie M Wiggins - Reply
6-14
10:53
pm

ROTFL!! :purr:

Christine - Reply
6-15
2:09
pm

My cats don’t shed so much as MOLT. It’s disgusting. Big clumps of fur all over the place.

I hit the chairs with the vacuum every week, and I’ve started putting a plastic grocery bag on my dining chair because I hate sitting in cat hair and the cats don’t like the crinkling, so they leave my chair alone. They leave the leather stuff alone, too, so that’s good.

The dog, on the other hand, is another matter entirely.

Amy Addison - Reply
6-15
7:56
pm

I had eight cats at one time. I went so far as to pull up all the carpet in the house and put in wood floors(so no fur on the carpet) and I bought that vacuum with the power brush attachment for the furniture.

All my cats had to be “inside” cats because I lived in the city. I felt so bad that they couldn’t go outside that I had a 12′x 20′ screened room built on the back of the house so they could see the birds and feel the breeze. Not that I indulged my cats or anything…

Kathy R - Reply
6-17
11:59
am

We have five indoor cats. I could knit myself another new cat every week with the amount of cat hair that I vacuum up. It’s gross. But I love my cats, so I deal with it. I’ve read such good things about the Furminator. I’m going to get one and try it out.

Kaye - Reply
6-17
12:13
pm

I don’t have cats now, but I’ve had the same problem with my dogs! Its amazing how much hair you can vacuum up and yet they never go bald!

I have birds now so no cats allowed inside!

TeresaH - Reply
6-25
6:31
am

*Furminator* I share my life with a quite hairy cat (Frosty) and the furminator is awesome for grooming. Yes, the are expensive. Very expensive. Maybe you could find a used one on eBay? Her coat is softer, more shiny and hopefully we will have fewer hairball incidents. Over the years I have purchased many brushes and combs for the kitties in my life, this one is the best! You will probably choke at the price, I think they are worth it! :-)

Julie Andrea in Englehart, ON - Reply