OK, here's my 2 cents worth:
To cut down on fur, spend about $38 (yup, that's right) and buy a "Furminator" brush for the cat. This thing is ridiculously over priced but in the end, worth every penny. It is shocking how much fur comes off the furbaby and would cut down tremendously on clogging up the brushes on the vacuum head.
Now as to the actual vacuum: There are very expensive models out there that last a few years. We opted to get a central vac installed in the house and am not sorry. The EXTREMELY large canister sits in the garage and the motor is super strong. The outlets are placed throughout the house and look like electrical outlets with covers on them. The vac is quiet, strong, easy to use; no dragging around a canister, no switching the cord to another electrical outlet 4-5 times and no bag replacement once a month or so. When I figured out the cost of buying a conventional vac, the bags, belts and predicted life span of a conventional vac and compared that against the cost of the central vac and the convenience, well, for me it was a no brainer. Just get more than one company to give you an estimated cost.