Solved!!!

Thanks for the suggestion of the Kirby, Annabel. But last night, Bruce started thinking about it and remembered that we bought some extended coverage on that vacuum. He is pretty organized with receipts, so he dug it out and he was right. We have coverage. For 4 years!!! The vacuum is only 2 years old. I spent today dreading that Best Buy (where we bought it) was going to want to send it off for repair. I mean seriously, in a pet-filled household we can't go without a vacuum for very long. But luckily they just completely replaced it!!! Bissell no longer makes the model that I have (wonder why? LOL), so Bruce got to pick out something similar. He ended up with the pet-version of the Hoover. I have no idea how long it will hold up, but right now it works great. Also, its much lighter and practically silent (at least compared to the jet engine other one). The animals might not run away in fear for their lives. The best part though is that it was FREE. You can't beat that, so we are going to see how this turns out. I am so happy to be rid of that heinous beast!!!