Anyone designed a cat proof flower vase?  

I know i will receive a thous...
I know i will receive a thousad lashings for this ... I declawed my cat when I got her. Put it this way: she was on death row and I saved her, but the price was her claws. In the 8 years I have had her she has never ever gotten out and I would NEVER give her away...even if I was allergic to her. If you know you will keep your cat and keep her inside then I suggest declawing.
What I need is cat hair-proof upholstery. I have to by upholstery in the shade of my cat (light tan) unless it is leather/vinyl.

The horror of hair
Declawing is something I just can't do, but your cat your choice. Mine used to go out until one of their bretheren was dinner for the local coyote gang. Can't blame the coyotes, they have a right to eat too, but the remaining 2 kitties no longer go walk-about. I did try the little glue-on rubber tips once. They actually work rather well. However I decided against the expense and upkeep...clipping is not that hard to do.
As for the hair, though, right now as I sit here typing this post I am 'foofing' cat hair off my keyboard. Every day I brush it, vac it, sweep it, spit it out and otherwise attempt to remove it from my life. But I have yet to find the perfect solution. It seems differing approaches work for differing surfaces. If anyone knows a sure-fire method, short of bald, or worse, no cats, tell me! dcw-I too am fertilizing the garden with wickedly wafting waste. Even the cats seem offended by their efforts...what IS their food made of????

I don't mind...
I don't mind sweeping/vacuuming. The joy my cat brings me will never be matched. When she kicks the bucket I think I will need a straight jacket and will never love again! However, I wonder if there is upholstery that tends to wipe/vacuum clean (rather than vinyl). The hopsack type fabric so commonly used on MCM holds onto hair like it's life or death. One must use a vacuum with killer suction, the brush attachment, and also employ the sticky rolller thingy mah-boob before you can get it clean. Only to have it in the same shape tomorrow...

transition from dlh to dsh...
Tom and Eastwood went to the great litter box in the sky at 14 and 15 respectively two years ago. They were domestic long hairs. Great fur. But starting the eighth year I began to get down on all fours once or twice week and cough up hairballs myself. When we finally took the veils off a year and a half later, we let my seven year old pick. He chose to pumpkin colored domestic short hairs. These are much better to live with regarding hair. I am confident I will make it to year ten or eleven before having to assume the position on the floor again with them and huck out the hairy two pounders.
P.S.: in another desparate attempt to make cats relevant to design, has anyone seen a corbusier cat tree? one with inverted massing done in a brutalist style. I'd like for it to have a crawl space tall enough for me to get under and slide a well sealed glass curtain wall around me the next time they evacutate.

Another attempt at relevance
I have always had short-haired cats. Except for one of our current darlings who fooled us all by looking like a short-haired when he was a weensy kitten. He currently looks like lint with feet. He's a total fur-bag, good thing he's such a great cat.
Now for relevance.
Whitespike mentioned the hopsacking fabric and its undying love for cat hair. I have noticed this too, so when I can select my own fabrics, I choose things that are fairly tight and low-nap. Seems to help with hair and seems to make furniture less attractive as a scratching post. I have also made up some polar-fleece napping pads and placed them in the favored napping zones. That stuff is a magnet for fur and I just toss it in the dryer to remove the hair. The cats really think I do it to make them more comfortable so we're all good. My IKEA $20 sheep fleece rug is also a good napping spot and it de-furs in the dryer quite well too.
I have also shamelessly 'knocked-off' PostModernPets.com and built a sisal, carpet remnant and corrugated carboard jungle-gym scratching thingie for the beasties. The PMP.com stuff was just too pricey, but the ideas were simple to adopt. Some conical legs, aluminum u-chanel, plywood, various remnants and the premade corrugated scratching thingies from PetCo and 'taadaa' Cat heaven! The object looks rather 1950's lounge-y and I can live with it in my house.
So there are my humble submissions for living peacefully with felines in the modern world.

Thanks for the fabric tip. Un...
Thanks for the fabric tip. Unfortunately everything I have had recovered has been woth a hopsack type material. Modernica and Herman Miller uses a very low nap tightly woven fabric for the standard material on their sofas (think standard sofa compact from DWR or the standard material on the cloud couch). Next time I think I will use this type.

Simple, be careful where you put your vases or plants.
On my mantlepiece, I designed a long shallow tray that I fill with water,  vases and clock sit on a small stone block.
On shelves, glue some velcro to the bottom of vase and again to the surface it sits on. If the surface it sits on is worth a bit of cash? glue the velcro to some sort of base, attach the base tight against the wall with a bracket and pins.

Olive, Whitespike, DC Wilson, and Koen -- where are they now ?  Great to see this old thread revived !