Well, we've had two cats for 22 years as well as wood floors and I just used the small sized shop vac from Lowes which easily did the trick. I have a 300.00 upright Riccar upstairs for the carpet and it's been nothing but trouble. I learned the hard way, more expensive does not necessarily mean better.

Storing it wasn't the easiest, so when my 38.00 shop vac finally started to fritz out, I decided to find something a little smaller in scale. I chose the Eureka Professional style Sanitaire and it's worked out perfectly. It's light weight and smaller in scale, hepa ready and works great on wood floors. It has a few different attachments and a telescoping feature which makes it easy to reach in high places. Best of all it didn't break the bank cost wise. This is the one I got but there are several different models/price ranges you can choose from. The suction on them is not as strong as the shop vac but it certainly gets the job done.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sanitaire by Eureka

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought most vacuums today offer the choice of Hepa bags and filters?
I have a Hoover upright but for the hardwood and upholstery I prefer to use my Kenmore Progressive Canister Vacuum with their Allergen Filtration Bag & HEPA filter. The info on the bag claims it traps 99.7% of dust, dander, mold, pollen.
I find it does a great job handling all the debris from my pets... :~)....birds, cat & dog.

I second the Kenmore Progressive Canister Vacuum. This is a vac that has been around a long time - nothing magical but it is well made, has good settings, good power, easy to use and has HEPA bags. Get them online to save money. I paid just over 200 dollars for it two years ago - much cheaper than some of the other canister vacs at the vacuum stores. Looks like they have several different models now at different prices online at Sears.

I use the wheat litter which has dust but is kind of heavy, different than the clay litters. This vac picks up the dust and the litter (and hair) with no problem.

Now if they just made one that ran by itself. I hate vacuuming.

I haven't tried vacuuming litter, but I agree that for general easy vacuuming, the Progressive is great. Mine (maybe 4 years old) had a flaw though--the power to the beater bar required for carpet kept shorting out requiring repairs. I finally gave up and got a Miele.

It is NOT better. Except for the still functioning aspect of course. I assume the new Kenmores have fixed that problem--it was a well-documented complaint. LOts of settings, easy to use, could suck fleas out of flokati.

Nice to hear some Kenmore people are happy, Sears products have gotten so bad over the years, I will never consider buying a Kenmore product, most people will tell you they're junk.

We also use a shop vac. For us it does a good job of picking up fur and litter from our hardwood and vinyl floors.

I'm not sure about the complication here. Any good vacuum should be able to pick up hair, fur, and bits of cat litter. If a vacuum cannot clean up those items sufficiently, it needs to be taken back. a $100 vacuum would suffice, let alone 300-600!!!! It's not complicated.

We have a kenmore vacuum that rolls on the floor. I like it. It works quite well.

OK I have to give big props to my Oreck Platinum. I have gone through TONS of vaacs cuz of the giant shedding dogs with double coats. Furbunnies doesn't even BEGIN to describe those tumbleweeds of hair.

Canister vaacs are out - reaching my arm up in there to dig out hair clumps was just awful after a vacuum. Its the first vaac I ever had that lasted longer than 1 year, and I'm on year 4 with it.