Well, since there were glowing reviews here - I did go ahead and purchase an Animal..... GULP on the price... almost $550. I'll tell you it was amazing. We swept the carpet with the old hoover, going over it really well. Then, I went over it with the Animal, and I could have made two pomeranians with what was in the canister, plus about a half inch of fine dust in the bottom. Amazing. However, it took two hands to push it around. I felt like I had just taken an aerobics class! Also, I have a fairly dark home.... not a lot of windows... it was a very energy efficient home, and does not have much natural light. The Dyson did not have an onboard "headlight" And, before sweeping in any room, I had to turn on every light in that room to see if I was getting all the stuff up. My elderly Mom (80) lives with me, and she usually does the sweeping. She was unable to run the Animal. My carpet has a courdaroy (sp?) texture to it - see the pic below of Lucky - the entire house has the same carpet, and all rooms are carpeted, including kitchen and baths. Back in the early 80's when I had the house built I didn't have a lot of money and it was so much cheaper to get commercial carpet, and get all the same thing. This carpet has worn like iron. The Dyson was not to bad if you went with the ribbing, but if you went across the grain, it was almost impossible to push. So - I took it back. We got the top of the line Hoover that is self propelled forward and back. It is like a feather to push/pull. It may not pick up quite as much as the Dyson, but at least we can both use it without ending up in the hospital with back strain. The Hoover does have two filters though, so I'm hoping it will be pretty good in the long run.
As far as the picture of Lucky.... This was about a month after his surgeries to remove what was left of the broken leg (the bottom part was missing) he had when he came here, and also the frost bitten tail. It looks like he only has 2 legs, but his other front leg is over his shoulder. The stains from how dirty he was are still on his face. But, he was starting to put on weight and get some nice fur in. Notice his extreme mitten paws! It's amazing now for me to look at these pictures and think how he looked back then. The pics from right after the surgery are just heart breaking. At least in this picture he was starting to play and have a bit of fun and act like a kitten! He is such a sweet and loving boy now. Just full of life and fun. And, such a talker! He is lucky he has such HUGE feet! It's like he has wide tires for traction since he only has 3 legs now. He loves to slide on the carpet. He takes off running he*l bent and just belly slides down the hallway - only to take off running the other way to do it again.
I've got to find time to make a thread here to share his story and some of the other cute pictures I have of him. I like to think he was doing some sort of kitty Tai Chi in this one! LOL...
Jules
