Later when their Young Master had returned from work, the Ginger Nuts were interested to hear further details of the proposed acquisition.

“Ah yes,” said Mark, “I read reviews of a SnaffleBot on that rainforest site. The recommendation is not to actually dispense with your conventional cleaner, which will be needed just occasionally for thorough cleansing. The technology is advancing fast and the prices are coming down.

There’s an AyeJimBot for Scottish people and a JumBot for large jobs, particularly if you have to clean up after an elephant.”

“I think you’re making some of this up!” suggested Old Mistress.

“Perhaps we should look for an iCatBot model?” chipped in Old Master.

“Don’t you start as well!” said Old Mistress.

A few days later, a delivery man called with a large box which was soon unpacked by Old Master and Old Mistress and the packing materials tidied away into the cellar. Old Mistress sat down to read the instructions and Old Master began fiddling with the assembly.

“It needs an area for its docking station which needs to be near a power plug,” explained Old Mistress, “so that requires some planning since it will scare the Pookies if it’s too near their feeding station.”

“As well as a remote control, it appears to have a voice activation mode too,” said Old Master, “together with its intelligent automatic program.”

“I see you weren’t actually joking about an iCatBot model,” said Old Mistress, peeping over her spectacles.

“Well it mentioned extra efficiency on cat hairs,” replied Old Master.

iCatBot was rather a smart looking machine, finished in dull orange, with ginger and brown stripes. A flat-topped dome completed the assembly and two soft plastic pointed ears finished things off and really made the painted cat-face look alive.

Old Mistress found a good place for its docking station and the machine was left charging, awaiting approval by Young Master.