One of my range critters has the same attitude toward booming sounds. She isn't too bad about thunder and I can shoot my springers for hours on end and she only gets bored and demands I interrupt my shooting with games of fetch. OTOH, she hightails it for the house with the first hint of fireworks (or gunshots - my town is getting rougher by the week) going off.
As for the felt cleaning pellets, I have used 'em although now I rely on bore snakes in .177 and .22 for my guns. On the rare occasions I do use the felt pellets I generally put a drop of airgun oil on the end of the pellet that goes into the breech first and then load a lead pellet directly behind the felt before firing. My experience is that a felt pellet alone, or two loaded together, does not provide enough back pressure to the air chamber to prevent the piston from slamming into the air port. Almost a dry-fire situation without a lead pellet in place. Using the felt pellet is almost like using a kitchen towel to do a quick wipe-up of a spill on the floor - gets the worst mess out of the way but not a thorough cleaning by any means.