Tigertail wrote:
brianj12 wrote:
It looks nice except for one thing: How does the cat get down from that high perch without a "crash landing?"
A very good point Brian.
I have been following Thrones on Instagram who suffered a broken hind leg falling/jumping from a 6ft high cat tree only this week. It hadn't occurred to me that this could happen to a cat, but is a wake up call to us all.
http://instagram.com/thronesthesavannahHis accident was on 4th Feb. Please read his story.
Heather
Yep, that's the reason I mention it. The first cat tree I ever bought was this tree that had a single, high pole and a little rectangular "house" on top. My cats (adult moggies, several years old) loved it of course, and would sleep up there all the time, often one on top of the rectangular "house" and the other inside it. But because it was just a single pole, the only way down to was jump down about 6' from the top with a really loud "thud" (or as I now call it, a "crash landing"). It was ok for awhile, but then came a few times when they "landed wrong" and would get a limp from it, causing me to do what Selbencke said, and place something else tall next to it. It's also now the first thing I look for when buying a tree. I look for a "path down" without the crash landing.
Another thing to consider is that trees last a very long time, and your cat will not always be young and spry. One thing I learned is that old cats love trees just as much as young cats, maybe more! But they obviously don't have the possibility of doing such a crash landing. It'll work out. Congrats on getting your tree, that will be huge for your cat, believe me. You just have to put the tree in a good place for your cat, and part of that is giving him a way down.