Gigantic Cat Tree

So, we got a cat. It's name is still to be determined, but we've gotten a few toys for it. Since it kept trying to get onto the mantle - cats like high places - we decided to get a cat tree. A cat tree higher than the mantle, in fact, so it fits here.

A trip to Petco later provided an awful lot of failures. For $120-250, you could have a sturdy plywood structure with carpet haphazardly stapled to it, and exposed plywood in various places. We were very much not impressed. For $300+, you could have something that looked solid, and had carpet well attached, but $300 is an *awful* lot to spend on a piece of furniture for a cat, in my book.

Enter the generic Petco brand cat tree. You have to assemble it yourself, but assembly was very easy, and instead of being 100% carpeted, it's hardwood birch with carpeting where the cat sits. It was $150ish, and sits the cat eye level with me, which the cat seems vaguely satisfied with. It's *furniture*, in my book, defined as "higher quality than Ikea produces". A+++. Would buy again. Ironically, the box was covered in about a 1/4" of dust, as the prebuilt carpeted things sell well, whereas the stuff you can't see pre-assembled doesn't seem to sell well at all.