Well, I got some help from some friends and we set up the hicat late last week, so my cats have had a few days to enjoy it so far. It's been a pretty big hit, thankfully. When I'm in the livingroom the hicat is definitely a buzz of activity.



First some of the particulars:
It's covered with this really heavy-duty tightly wound material, that the cats seem to climb really well. And it seems to wear really well too as the cats haven't even put a dent in it yet whatsoever.

My hicat is one attached to the wall rather than the ceiling (floor to ceiling is actually their "default" install). The advantage of the wall install is that you don't have to be as carefully about measuring everything to the millimeter, and if you need to move the hicat to a different place in the house (with a different ceiling height) you can do that. The wall install is very sturdy also. 3 adult cats jumping and climbing up and down that thing and it doesn't budge!



Now that I've had it a while though I can see that actually the biggest benefit to the wall installed hicat is that you can get it with an extra perch at the very top. And that of course is where all my cats want to head for and hang out (and play).







I have what's called a "fat tom" in that it is wider in diameter than the basic hicats. In hindsight I think that was a good choice, as it gives the cats a bit more room to mess around inside it.









http://www.jeppie.net/cats/hicat/serafina_neytiri3.jpg[/img]

There is two different ways to configure each of the main holes in it:
A full perch (with catbed option, which is custom made to perfectly fit the perch)
[img]http://www.jeppie.net/cats/hicat/catbed_internal.jpg


or as a "wormhole"


The wormhole is a perch with a big hole in it, so that the cats can climb the hicat "internally" and climb up and down through the perches.

As usual though, the cats never quite seem to use it as you expect


My cats mostly like to either sit on the top perch, or the connector against the wall, or just climbing up and down the exterior.



I also got an optional toy for it, which is a band of velcro with little darts that stick to it. That's actually been a huge hit with the cats. They immediately sprint up the tree when I throw one up there, and start batting down the darts.

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The little monsters 3

Installing the hicat is not complicated. For a wall install you first have to drill this little bracket to the wall:



They give you these HUGE bolts to drill and screw in there:



Which is why it is so stable. Then you just fasten this other piece of wood (spacer) to the bracket, and fasten the hicat to it by drilling a hole through the back of the hicat and using this big screw that they include to hold it together.


Really the only hard part is drilling a hole deep enough for that huge bolt, and then screwing that in there. Otherwise it's pretty easy.

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The little monsters 3

I'll do some videos of their hicat play soon.

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The little monsters 3

Great write up Brian, thanks! Looks like an impressive piece of kit, I'm glad your cats are loving it. I like the idea of the velcro darts too.

Looks fantastic, would love one of those for my boys! Good to see them enjoying it so much - looking forward to the videos!

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

Very nice!

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Dallas, TX USA
Diesel - snow Bengal born 09/01/2013 adopted Feb 2014
Tuck, Chloe, Buddy, Lewis & Tia - rescue kitties
Clyde, Bleu & Coal - Great Danes

That looks fab & actually I found it extremely useful to know that it doesn't have to go all the way to the ceiling!

I had measured up for one a while ago now, but live in a house where not all the ceilings are straight - let alone the floor! so decided against it; just in case I got it wrong!

Great pics & cats look to be having a great time!

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The little monsters 3

Good call on getting shelves to go with the Hicat!

Just out of curiosity, how much do your cats weigh?

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The little monsters 3

This looks awesome! My cats would love it.

Brian, when you first mentioned the Hicat -- months ago, I honestly could not gather up a picture of what this was going to actually look like. Their website simply had a drawing. Now I see that it's a very wide pole and the fabric allows the cats to climb up it. Plenty of holes for them to investigate inside (I guess you can put platforms in there) and the bed on top is great! Your kitties obviously enjoy this very much. Thanks for sharing and especially for all the great advice you give on this forum!

Thanks for sharing! Looks great. I love how the cats can go inside of the pole. My cat also uses the top "perch" which was only meant to
attach his pole to the wall. It is rather small and makes me kind of nervous since it is 10' tall, but he doesn't seem nervous it all.
So funny how your cats use that little shelf that attaches to the wall too.