ABC Pet 21021 3-Tier Cat Climbing Tree, Blue

I spent a lot of time reading every review for this (& in the tan color), as well as other sub-$60 trees, before buying. I do not regret my purchase. I wanted sometime that required my fat, lazy ~13+ lb cat to jump and get a little bit of exercise. She also completely ignores all three scratching devices in my apartment and tears up our carpet instead (thank goodness it's cheap), so the idea of getting her to scratch something productive was nice. Lastly, I wanted to give her something to help her from being as bored/lonely since we lost our dear friend, my other cat, recently. I can say that it's mostly fulfilling these needs and for a heck of a lot cheaper than anything else with this much height. That being said:1) No, she does not use the topmost tier. But she uses the others and seems to love them. In particular, when I sit next to her on the adjacent ottoman, she adores either being at the same height as my face so she can easily get my attention, or pretending that she is stalking me from the 2nd highest tier (you know what I mean...getting the all-black eyes and clearly fantasizing about jumping onto my head when I'm not looking). She will even sit on it and meow for me to come sit next to her. In short, I see the top tier as maybe being a challenge for someday - but ultimately, the height of this tree is a benefit because it provides stability from being wedged between the ceiling and the floor, much more so than I could get with another tree unless spending three times as much for a heavier design.2) The carpet is holding up fine so far, surprisingly (better than my floor carpet) but I plan to replace it with rope if/when it eventually comes apart. That stuff's cheap, so it's totally worth it. I would have preferred the tan color, but hey, I'm poor, so I wanted to save an extra $8 bucks.3) Despite seeming to like climbing (more so when she was a kitten, however, and less...ahem..."pear-shaped"), she does not generally climb from one tier directly to another, other than jumping to the second (i.e., first elevated) tier. However, she jumps off of nearby mid-level surfaces to get to the next level easily. She also really likes when I put toys on the topmost or 2nd from the top tier with just a little bit hanging down so that she can reach up and grab them before viciously dropping them off her own personal "cliff edge."I wholeheartedly recommend this tree. The only beef I honestly have is that, when placed in the corner for extra support as I did, the dimensions of the tiers don't match up ideally, such that I have a bit of a safety concern. That is, there is a bit of a gap between the middle two tiers and the wall. One of these gaps is big enough that I worry a little about her falling partway into it and getting stuck (yes, she IS that clumsy). When I eyeballed it to see if I could rotate them to reduce the issue, I realized that there was no way to do it without just creating a same-sized gap on the other middle tier. The top and bottom tier placements don't matter at all since she doesn't use the top, but the only other way to get rid of the "gap of concern" is to rotate it so that the middle two tiers are oriented the same way, which would inhibit her beloved cliff-throwing activities. (If anyone else has figured a way around this issue, please let me know!)

We have owned three identical cat trees (purchased from Wall Mart) which tend to last over a year each until the fabric covering falls apart. The only reason I ordered online was Walmart was out of stock.With this tree, however, the structure is appalling. Despite repeated attempts to tighten and adjust each section the tower bows terrible, rocks dangerously while the cats climb it and bows even more while the cats are perched on the shelves.The only difference I noted when assembling this tower was the connecting bolts were manufactured different from the last tower we had. Not sure if this is the reason for the structural short-comings, but I will now have to shop for another option as this can't and won't last long.

While this isn't a tree that will last years, it is a unique design that my cats love. It's difficult to find a tree that will go from floor to ceiling at this price. It's sturdy enough to withstand my cats' favorite activity, jumping on it and racing to the top. The only drawback is that once your cat scratches through the carpet, the only material underneath is a heavy cardboard tube, which is easily destroyed by a cat. I prolong the life of the cat tree by wrapping the exposed area in duct tape. Eventually, however, my cats do claw through enough of the tubes that the tree is essentially destroyed. I have purchased many of these trees over the years, tossing out the old one, and replacing it with a new one approximately once a year. As long as this product stays at a reasonable price I will continue to do so.

This is basically a wooden pole with three wooden steps. If my husband would've have a little more time, we could've easily build this our self for half the price other than that good product for its use. Will update after cats have use this.UpdateSunday, November 30 update.After having this in our home and having our youngest cat use it,I would like to upgrade my opinion of this product. The good thing about this product is that you can adjusted to fit different size rooms, I would not recommend it for very heavy cats but it has become the favored stair stepper to his window perch. This is for my younger cat.I do still stick with my original statement that it is a very basic cat tree with not very wide steps. Still, mixed with another cat tree, we have, it has become a nice little jungle gym. I would now give it 3 1/2 stars, possibly 4 stars as a great starting PlayStation, for young or smaller cats.I have also reviewed another cat tree that we purchased through Amazon which is bigger, good for the price, and all in all we think a much better value. You can read through my other reviews to find what we think is the best cat tree, other cat lovers me know by a similar one and paid nearly $500 more for it.