A cat that is shedding heavily is swallowing most of it, and grooming is the only real lever an owner has over hairballs. The difficulty is that many cats will sit for roughly ninety seconds of it before deciding they have had enough. A tool that does two jobs in one pass, pulling the dead coat out and then finishing with something the cat actively enjoys, is how you stay inside that ninety seconds.

One face of the head carries teeth that catch and lift loose undercoat before it ends up on the sofa. Turn it over and the other face is a rounded ring designed to massage the skin, spreading the coat's natural oils along the length of the hair. The handle is shaped for grip rather than for looks, which matters when you are working one-handed around a wriggling cat, and the cat-eared head is small enough to steer around the cheeks and behind the ears.

• Double-sided head: deshedding teeth on one face, massage ring on the other
• Rounded ring head spreads the coat's natural oils
• Comfortable easy-grip handle
• Suits cats and small dogs with short to medium coats
• Helps cut down shed hair around the home and hairballs
• Lightweight and simple to rinse clean
• Two colours, white and blue

On coat types. This is built for short and medium coats. On a long-haired cat, a Persian or a Maine Coon or anything that mats behind the elbows, it will tidy the surface but it will not reach the layer where the trouble starts, and you will still want a proper long-tooth comb. It is not a de-matting tool either: work around a mat rather than through it.

Who it's for: Cat and small-dog owners in shedding season who want short, calm grooming sessions their pet will actually tolerate.