Best cat tree for an Abyssinian

Moving from a cardboard scratcher to a full cat tree is a big upgrade — and for an Abyssinian especially, it's worth getting right. The two things that matter most in any cat tree are stability and height. It must not wobble when a cat launches off it at speed, because a wobble once means the tree gets avoided forever. And cats feel genuinely safer when they can get high up — it's not just a preference, it's instinct. A lot of cheap trees fail on both counts and end up ignored within a week. Before I point you anywhere, a couple of quick questions: how big is your Abyssinian, how active would you say they are on a scale of average to absolutely feral, and how much floor space can you give the tree?

Perfect — that tells me a lot. A lean, high-energy Abyssinian needs a tree that goes tall rather than wide, which suits your corner spot well. She'll want multiple levels to move between, and she'll absolutely use the highest point as her lookout post. The thing to avoid is anything with a single thick central pole and wide flat platforms — those tend to be the wobbly ones. What you want is a base-heavy design with multiple support poles. Does she currently scratch the cardboard scratcher a lot, or has she mostly been ignoring it and climbing furniture instead?

That confirms it — she's a climber first, scratcher second. The tree needs to satisfy that urge to get high, and scratching posts on the way up are a bonus rather than the main event. For a cat like this I'd go with the Feandrea 170cm Cat Tree, model PCT170H. It's around 170cm tall, has a solid multi-pole base that doesn't rock, a top perch she can genuinely own, and several intermediate platforms so she can do her patrol route up and down. The sisal-wrapped poles will handle scratching but the real draw for her will be the height and the stability — she'll trust it quickly because it won't shift under her. It fits comfortably in a 60x60cm footprint and the assembly is solid enough that it stays tight over time, which cheaper trees don't.

It's not the quickest build — budget about an hour — but the instructions are clear and the key thing is getting the base bolts really tight before you move on. That's where most people go wrong: they assemble everything loosely and wonder why it wobbles. If you do it methodically from the bottom up and tighten as you go, it ends up very solid. One practical tip: once it's built, rub a little of her used bedding on the top platform before she encounters it. Abyssinians can be wary of new things despite being bold, and her own scent on it removes the hesitation almost immediately.

Good choice for her. One last thing — position it so the top platform has a sightline to the main activity in the room, whether that's the sofa, the kitchen, wherever you spend time. Abyssinians want to watch everything. Give her that view from height and she'll consider the tree hers within a day or two.