The Day We Set Up the Heybly Heavy-Duty Cat Tree

The box came on a Thursday in March, and Ray carried it in from the porch with both arms and a look on his face. Thirty-five pounds, the listing says. I had already read the whole page twice before I ordered, which is how I do things. I teach middle school science, so I read the directions first and the adjectives second. The Heybly Heavy-Duty Cat Tree was going in the corner of the den in the newer back addition, close enough to the woodstove that a cat could get warm and still keep an eye on the whole room.

Here is what pushed me to buy it. June is three, gray and white, eight pounds, and she goes up anything. Curtains, the top of the refrigerator, the shelf over the washer. Biscuit is nine, an orange tabby, about fourteen pounds, and he has started taking the stairs a little slower than he used to. What I needed was something tall enough to satisfy June and wide enough that Biscuit would actually trust it. Tall and narrow was the thing I was trying to avoid. The Heybly listing says five levels and about sixty-four inches tall, with a widened frame and two top perches, one square and one pentagonal at 17.7 by 21.7 inches. That pentagon number is what sold me. It is a genuinely large flat space.

Saturday afternoon we laid the parts out on the den floor. Ray does the drilling in this house. I do the reading and the leveling. The material list says engineered wood, faux fur, and sisal, and that matches what came out of the box: solid panels, a soft covering already attached, and posts wrapped in rope. The sheet was clear enough to follow without a video. We sorted the hardware into a muffin tin, which is not in the instructions and is the only way I have ever assembled anything.

An hour and a half, start to finish, with one coffee break in the middle. That is two adults, one of whom reads slowly on purpose. If you are doing it alone, plan on longer. Nothing was missing. Nothing had to be forced. The one place we slowed down was lining up the top section, because the whole thing gets a little top-heavy once you stack five levels of shelving up there.

One thing that is not in the box: we added a plain furniture anti-tip strap from the hardware store. Ray ran it from the top section into a wall stud. The strap is not part of the product and Heybly does not include it. I would still do it every time. Our floors are old and they are not perfectly level, and I have watched June launch herself off a perch at speed. Ten minutes and one screw is a fine trade for not thinking about it again.

Five levels, seven sisal posts, one scratching board. June has used every bit of it. Biscuit has claimed the condo and the big lower platform, and he is not negotiating.

The cats did not wait for a formal introduction. June was on the sisal posts before we had the last panel tight. She took the top square perch, which is hers and will stay hers, and she sits up there in the evening with her tail hanging over the edge like she is running the place. The listing mentions pom-poms and sisal rope toys, and she bats at those when she is in a mood. Biscuit took longer. He circled it, sat down, thought about it, then climbed onto the big lower platform and lay flat. That is Biscuit's entire approach to life. He naps in the condo some afternoons too, which I did not expect.

What I have paid attention to is how it holds up where it counts. The scratching surfaces are the parts taking the abuse, exactly as they should. Seven sisal posts and one scratching board, per the listing. Several months in, the wear is honest but it is on one side of one post only. June picks a favorite and works it. That tells me there is a lot of rope left before anything needs replacing, and it tells me she is a creature of habit, which I already knew.

The honest part. It is 35.49 pounds and it takes up a footprint of roughly 21.65 by 17.72 inches, so it is a real piece of furniture and it wants a corner. Ours is in the den and it lives there. I would not put it in the middle of a small living room and expect it to disappear. And no cat tree fixes anything. If your cat is older and slowing down, or if you have questions about weight or joints, that is a conversation for your own vet, not for a listing page. I am a science teacher. I am not a veterinarian and I do not play one in print.

What I would say about the two of them: Biscuit uses the lower half. At fourteen pounds he wants wide, flat, and not too high off the floor. June uses the top half. The same tree serves both, which is the reason I am still glad it is in the den. If you have one climber and one cat who would rather not, this is the shape of tree that works for that pair. If both of your cats want the very top perch, you will have a negotiation on your hands and there is nothing any manufacturer can do about it.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to measure the corner before you order and say the height out loud, because sixty-four inches is taller than some people are picturing. I would tell you to plan for the anti-tip strap even though it is not in the box, and to put it into a stud rather than trusting drywall. I would tell you that the first week is not the verdict. Biscuit ignored ours for four days before he decided it was furniture and not a threat, and he is the one who sleeps in it now. And I would tell you that a cat tree is a thing you will look at every day for years, so buy the one whose base does not rock when you push on the top post. Ours does not, and that is the whole review.