Go Pet Club

Go Pet Club is a pet furniture company based in Livermore, California, founded by Cindy Trinh and James Lew. They say they have been making pet furniture since 2001 and that they manufacture their own designs. What we stock from them is cat trees -- 23 of them, from a 47-inch starter unit to nine-foot towers that brace against your ceiling -- plus one elevated mesh pet cot.

Choose By Height

• 47 to 55 inches -- for a flat, a smaller room or a first tree. Platforms, a condo and sisal posts, with a ramp on the 52-inch model for kittens and older cats, and a sisal ramp on the 55-inch Whiskers for cats that scratch horizontally.
• 57 to 62 inches -- the sweet spot for most homes. Jungle Rope at 57.5 in has thick climbing ropes; the 60-inch Black is the only dark finish; the two 62-inch models add hammocks, tunnels and a chase hole between levels.
• 67 to 72 inches -- for more than one cat. The IQ Busy Box adds a puzzle tray, and the beige 72-inch model carries thirteen sisal posts, more scratching surface than anything else here.
• 71 to 87 inches -- the Forest trees with faux vine foliage, and the 87-inch Climber with a swinging bridge for balance work.
• 92 inches and up -- three floor-to-ceiling towers with an adjustable top pole that braces against the ceiling, giving a cat nine feet of territory on an armchair's worth of floor.

How To Choose

• Count your cats. One resting place per cat plus a spare is the rule that stops arguments, and an enclosed condo counts for far more than an open shelf.
• Measure your ceiling before you look at anything over 80 inches, and before you buy a floor-to-ceiling model at all.
• Watch how your cat scratches. A cat that stretches up a door frame wants tall posts; one that works at the carpet wants a ramp or a horizontal pad.
• Think about jumps. Kittens, older cats and overweight cats need a ramp or a ladder, not a stack of platforms a foot apart.
• Check the floor space, not just the height. The widest unit here is 90 inches across; the narrowest is 16.

Why A Cat Tree Earns Its Space

Cats need to climb and they need to scratch, and a house with nowhere to do either gets the sofa instead. Height is how a cat feels safe enough to relax properly; scratching is how it sheds the outer sheath of its claws and marks territory, and it is not a habit you can train away. A tree is simply the place you decide those things will happen.

What They Are Made Of

Go Pet Club build these the standard way: a pressed-wood frame wrapped in faux fur, with posts covered in natural sisal rope. Sisal is what cats go for, because it shreds under a claw in a way carpet does not -- a post going fuzzy is a post doing its job, and it can be re-wrapped with new rope rather than replacing the tree. Pressed wood does not like water, so these are indoor furniture: vacuum the fur, wipe marks off, and never soak them.

Good To Know

• Everything arrives flat-packed and needs assembling. Instructions and tools are included, and it is worth building it in the room it will live in -- an assembled cat tree does not go through a doorway.
• Build on a level floor, tighten everything fully, and re-check the bolts every few months. They work loose as a cat jumps on and off, and a tall tree that rocks is a genuine hazard rather than a nuisance.
• Put taller units against a wall, and fit the ceiling brace on the floor-to-ceiling models. On those it is a safety fitting, not an optional extra.
• Keep trees away from curtains, blind cords and anything a cat could use as a stepping stone to somewhere it should not be.
• A cat recovering from surgery, or one with arthritis, should be kept to the lower levels until the vet says otherwise.
• Give a new tree a week before deciding it has failed. A little catnip on the posts, or a worn t-shirt on the top perch, usually settles it.
• Measure your pet asleep rather than standing when you are sizing the pet cot, and keep its steel frame out of direct sun.