Why Do We Buy Cat Trees?

We buy cat trees because cats love to climb trees.  

Cat Climbing Tree

When cats are allowed outside, they will climb trees.  It gives them a good vantage point to watch for prey.  It also gives them a safe place to rest, to avoid becoming prey for something bigger that may come along.

With their claws and natural agility, cats are born tree climbers.  Unfortunately, they’re not always good tree get-downers. 

One very hot summer day a few years ago, I was working at home on my computer, wearing shorts and a halter top.  My neighbor, who had adopted a couple of feral cats who insisted on going outside every day, came over in hysterics because one of her cats had climbed too high into a tree and couldn’t get down.  She wanted me to get it.  The cat was about 30 feet up.  I grabbed one of the lower branches that I could pull down and called to her.  She climbed down from branch to branch until she got onto the branch I was bending down.  When she got to within six feet of me, she decided she had found the safest and quickest way down — she jumped onto the top of my head and slid, claws out, down my back!  Her grateful owner took me home and applied some kind of green tea cat claw mixture to my flayed back.  It made for a couple of very uncomfortable days!

Of course, Sneakers was safe.

Those of us who do not want to go through anything like that would be much safer and healthier — and so would our cats — if we bought inside cat trees.   Then our cat could follow her natural instincts and we could save our skin.  Speaking from experience, the cost of the cat tree is worth it.