He was a nice cat, still had plenty of lives left, but who knew he would lose his mind the day we brought home his arch enemy.
It all began innocently enough.
We brought "it" home with visions of getting some help around the house.
Clean carpets void of cat hair and trails of kitty litter.
Lord knows the cat wasn't cleaning up after himself.
We unpacked the box, carefully read the instructions, set up the base station and began to charge it up.
After only three hours it was ready, battery fully charged and raring to go to work.
Off it went, gliding across the floors, cleaning as it went.
Under the furniture, under the couch.
It stayed there quite a while since no one had cleaned under the couch for at least a year.
Using it's sensors it was able to detect that extra cleaning was needed and so it spent considerable effort under the couch.
Meanwhile, the cat who had been sleeping comfortably in the upstairs clothes hamper, decided he would bless us with his presence.
He swaggered into the living room letting everyone know he had arrived.
Sitting in the middle of the floor licking himself, "it" made it's appearance.
From under the couch, full of cat hair and fur balls, "it" zipped across the carpet making a beeline for "the cat".
Suddenly sensing all was not right in his kingdom, the cats eyes grew huge, his back arched, hair at full attention.
He let out an unearthly hiss as he seemingly danced across the floor sideways on the tips of his claws.
In a puff of fur and a blur he was gone, his world never to be the same.
As the cat exited the Roomba happily vacuumed up the blast of fur left behind, then turned it's attention to the far side of the room, soon to return to it's base station to recharge ready for it's next mission.
And so it has been, this marvelous new member to the household.
A Roomba, made by iRobot.
The Roomba is amazing as it automatically adjusts as it moves from carpet to hard floors and back again, cleaning rugs, tile, and linoleum with the same efficiency.
Unlike the cat, the Roomba has never slammed into the furniture or fallen down the stairs as it is able to detect furniture and the edge of the stairway and move away to safely vacuum around both.
Using what iRobot calls a Virtual Wall Lighthouse? you can create a Virtual Wall® which is an invisible line that the Roomba won't cross allowing you to block off areas that you don't want cleaned.
The Virtual Wall Lighthouse? can be set to a Virtual Wall mode or Lighthouse mode.
In the Lighthouse mode the Roomba stays in the current room until that room is thoroughly cleaned, then it can move on to additional rooms.
The cat is seen occasionally creeping around the corners, peering intently into the room making sure "it" isn't around before he enters.
The cat hasn't been the same, he's somehow a bit more humble, doesn't treat us with quite as much distain ever since our Roomba came home.
Let's just say the cat has had his act cleaned up.