On Cat Litter and Chinese Sized Brooms

This morning I gave back the cat I have been watching for the last two weeks.  As soon as her owner walked out the door I broke into a chorus of "Free at Last."  The last two weeks have been great fun, but it's exhausting having a cat around who likes to wake you up in the middle of the night wanting to play or nibble on various pieces of anatomy not lucky enough to be under the sheets (my poor nose, chin, and ears for the worst of it).  I'm looking to a full night's sleep again. :)
Also as soon as the cat vacated I decided to clean up my house.  I've had cats living in my home most of my life and it never ceases to amaze me that cats are capable of getting their cat litter everywhere!  I swear that the cat had a 15-20 foot radius going on this litter.  Then again, she was insane.  So, because stepping on cat litter all day just seems insanely gross to me, I pulled out my broom to sweep it up. 
In America, I actually really enjoy sweeping.  It's kind of a feeling of "Haha sucker!" when you sweep up all that offending dust.  However in China, I avoid sweeping and usually leave it to my ayi.  Why do I do that?  Well, the reason is very simple.  I have never seen a broom in China that exceeds about 2.5 to 3 feet tall.  It's like the midget broom you hand your kid when you want them to help with the chores but don't want them to fall over cause the normal-person sized broom is too heavy.  It's something you see in the store and say "Ah, that is so cute!" with no intention whatsoever of ever buying anything so ridiculous. 
Why are brooms so short in China you ask?  Other than the fact that I am as tall as most of the men here (I'm 5'5") and all the women are usually a head or more shorter than me, I have no idea.  I've never seen a midget sized Chinese person and I love to have my brooms almost as tall as me...at least to my shoulder....my ayi also has to bend over to use my broom...though not quite so far.  I simply don't get it.  Maybe brooms are short for the same reason that the counters hit my upper thighs (let me tell you...leaky sinks are a bad thing...it looks like you wet yourself)...I always pull a chair up to my counter if I have lots of dishes to do so that my back doesn't mutiny and decide to leave me some day for all the abuse I have caused it.
Needless to say, I got only half my house swept before I gave up on the midget broom.  My back was making threatening comments about packing it's bags.  So, no dust death in the other half of my house for now.  It can live in peace for just a bit longer.  At least the cat litter radius has been terminated. ;)