We caved since this thread was first started and ditched the Shark.
My DD loves it but it just wasn't doing the job at my house. (2 cats and a lab
)
My DH and I save up the Target gift cards you get when you buy 3 of this/that or spend $50 in household etc... sales and we managed to save quite a bit of $ in cards so we bought a Dyson V8 cordless stick vac.
I know it's been said that they're not worth the money....but so far, I have to disagree. I love mine!! It is super easy to use and does a great job of removing the hair. The only down side so far is that I get a blister on my thumb when using it (from reading reviews it seems to be fairly common) but I have noticed the new ones have a redesigned handle so maybe it's not an issue anymore... I don't know.