Ancol Acticat Flat Giraffe Comfort Mat, 50 x 60 cm

Sulu Cat reviews:"When my human brought me home from the cat shelter, I found this. I worked out fast what it was for. Indeed, I soon discovered that it was just as good as wooden door jambs for sharpening my front claws.For a while, I kept scratching door jambs as well as this post. But then my human started giving me a tasty treat each time I scratched the post. She called this 'training', and I liked the idea very much.I trained her to bring me a tasty treat each time I scratched the post. She learned really fast.Humans are highly intelligent creatures and can be trained as companions and housekeeping staff. I've trained mine well.Whenever I scratch this post, she says "Good, Sulu, good", she strokes my face and brings me a treat. I summon snack delivery services several times daily.The height of the post is about right for a perfectly proportioned cat like myself. 'Medium size' the vet says. I wonder what 'tall' or 'extra tall' is supposed to mean here. If I were any taller, I'd have to use the door jambs again. This would be a shame, because my human doesn't reward me for scratching those.One of the first things I did with this post was rip off that silly toy at the top. I was only 9 months old at the time, but even then I possessed sophisticated taste and that silly thing just wouldn't do.I hated that ring in the middle. It prevented me from having a good scratch. I could only scratch half way, and then the movement stopped. Very annoying - not like the gloriously uninterrupted scratching one gets on a door jamb.Since I couldn't remove the ring myself, I instructed my human (who has opposable thumbs) do this for me. She was slow to understand what I wanted her to do, so I had a go myself. I unscrewed the upper part from the lower. This was quite a challenge without opposable thumbs, but I found a way: I hooked my claws into the top part and walked around the post. This unscrewed it nicely.My human actually screwed it back on, but after I repeated the action three more times, she got the message and removed that ring, so now I had a blissful uninterrupted scratch.After one year, the post became unsightly. The sisal was frayed, and it was no longer of much use. By now I had discovered the alternative scratching facilities in the garden (raised vegetable beds, neighbourhood tree trunks), and was also considering returning to the door jambs. My human agreed with my assessment that the scratching post needed refurbishment. She tried to turn parts of the post upside down which would have been a neat solution. But the designers of this item obviously lacked the foresight to provide such a simple option.My human pulled off the damaged sisal (and for a while, the light and dark cords were fun to play with) and glued on a new, thicker, stronger sisal rope. I really like this one. It gives a blissful scratch and I haven't even looked at the door jambs since.I've discovered another exciting use for this scratching post. If I stand on it - quite a feat of balance, see attached photo - and turn around myself, my human gets excited, heaps lavish praise on me, and brings me as many treats as I like. Like I said, humans are highly trainable."

My review below relates to the product I bought a year ago. As I was submitting it, I noticed that the picture of the product I bought (that had a mouse - see attached photo) differs from the product that now shows on Amazon. So note that my comments about the mouse may or may not apply to this product now, I am not sure!___The mouse lasted all of five seconds but, having bought our spoiled boys multiple such things in the 15 months we've had them, we've learned that any toy involving a dangly mouse on a string will not last more than a couple of hours (the strings snap EVERY single time).So, mouse aside, this scratching post is a really good one and has lasted beautifully for over a year now. It has a very stable base, unlike some others, and its height means your little ones can use it as kittens through to giant big boys like ours. Gets used on a daily basis and is one of their favourite places to scratch (aside from my boyfriend's jeans and my tights).

This cat pole is fantastic. We get through quite a few poles and have tried them in all shapes and sizes, but this one beats the lot. Our cat seemed to know it was for her when the box arrived, and watched intently as we put it together.The base is bigger than usual but does not look out of place, and is needed to stop the very long pole from toppling over once your cat is in full scratching mode.Our cat is thirteen now and cannot quite manage to reach the dangling ball, but staring at it plus the odd attempt to reach it keeps her amused.She uses it every few hours for some reason, unlike all her previous poles, and maybe this is to do with it being slightly narrower than usual.As we have the pole in front of the fire it's a win win situation as we can see more of the fire !I am so impressed with our cats reaction to this pole, together with its robust nature, I may well purchase another before they become unavailable for whatever reason.

I bought this scratching post as my cat is getting bigger and I wanted him to be able to put it back claws on a post as well as his front. We already had a large scratching post and this one is slightly bigger, I thought it might be taller but it does allow my cat to scratch with his back claws.It isn't a high quality as our other post, the string / yarn is thinner and he has been able to unpick it from the frame reasonably quickly. He was also not as keen to scratch this one as the others we own.The ball on a string had mixed reaction from him, he would occasionally give it a bat but nothing much more. So I decided to take it off the top, and subsequently he loves playing with it, so much that he broke it off from the plastic holder.Overall though, a decent scratching post at good value and can provide hours of entertainment and scratching.

Damaged by 7 month old kitten in less than 10 minutes. Bought for our cats for Christmas, but decided to unpack and put it together today. Having put it together one of our kittens swung on the ball and the rope attaching it to the arm started to come away, it is feeble looking as it us thin sisal rope, glued in rather then threaded through. A larger eye on the arm woul have allowed a knot in the string but as it us set up it really requires something far more robust. Had already wondered if the arm would be up to two boisterous kittens and one adult cat but so far thr arm is ok. The post itself looks robust enough just disappointed it broke so soon. Yes it is repairable, at extra cost to us. Hence only three stars.