If you've got cat hair problems, I feel bad for you, son...

...I got 99 problems, but shedding ain't one.

Okay, that's not entirely true, but situations have certainly improved. Overdone and outdated jokes aside, my older cat, Ziggy, is a shedding machine all year round. I can barely touch him without suddenly acquiring a new fur coat. I used to try brushing him with a regular slicker brush, but for the most part it seemed like it was just pushing loose fur to the base of his tail. Recently, I've also noticed that he'll have a little cough-cough shortly after grooming. The baby Leo doesn't seem to shed as much, but he does get hairballs more often than I'd like.

So I did a little research and came across the FURminator line of products. They all seemed to have really great reviews on various sites (particularly for short hair breeds; there was a little more debate about their effectiveness/necessity for long hair breeds) so I got my hands on a small cat one and a medium dog one (my mom's dog sheds like mad, too).

I have to say, I was really impressed by the cat brush! I spent about ten minutes brushing Ziggy and had a MASSIVE pile of fur. Apparently it's possible to overbrush and remove too much hair and possibly damage their skin with the FURminator, so I made sure to brush quite lightly and stop when it seemed like there weren't huge clumps coming out. And afterwards, I was actually able to snuggle him for a few minutes and come away mostly hair free! There was no coughing for about a week following, either, which is when it was time to brush him again, anyway. Leo didn't yield quite as large a pile of fur, but I haven't noticed any hairballs since using the brush.

The brushes are a bit pricey (between $20 and $40, depending on size and distributor), but if you have it, I'd definitely recommend giving them a try. It doesn't stop shedding completely (does anything, short of a close shave??), but boy, does it help.

But I'd like to hear if there are other favorite methods or products that you guys use to cut down on shedding and hairballs. Also, any tips for clean up after the damage is done? I find that those sticky lint rollers can be kind of hit-or-miss and I wonder just how much I'm spending every year to refill them!