“There’s no better material for cats like wood” (Some cat owner, somewhere, 2024)

I was introduced to PawPawUp initially by one of my cat-owner colleague. She eagerly showed me one of their products, and seeing her cats exploring their new fortress of solitude, I had just one thought, like any other 5-year old child watching someone eating an ice-cream: “I definitely need one”.

Our old cat tower has seen better days, everyone thinks we bought it second hand but it has only been one year. And for the most part, that’s the reality of some cat towers, their materials and build can mean short life spans. We started looking at PawPawUp’s tower selection with a few things in mind: durability, height and of course, fun for our little buddies. That’s when we viewed their Windmill Cat Tree, and it was a swift “Add to cart” and buy from there.

Delivery Time: It took about 2 weeks from purchase for it to come, a bit slower than other products we have purchased, but definitely cannot complain once you see the product.

Price: For the quality of the build, #worthit.

Handling: One word: HEAVY. Be careful when you are moving the box around, these people took packaging lessons from IKEA, fitting all the components into a deceivingly small box.

Build Instructions: Good/10, took 2 people half an hour to do

Build Experience: Wood, amazing. The platforms and plates were well made, some holes weren’t fully punched out but it just pops out using the screw, so no biggie. Speaking of screws, we have one janky screw, and unfortunately they didn’t come with spare screws leading us to a bit of an “uhhhhhh…” moment. But alas we made it work, with a bit more force.

Overall Quality: One thing I would really want more is the sisal rope! We have 3 quite randomly (at least I feel) placed columns with sisal rope, and they’re mostly at awkward heights for our cats to fully stretch and scratch. They mostly go for the fluff, giving me flashbacks to our old cat tower snow-flaking fluff all over our floor. But to my surprise nothing’s come off yet! The base and whole tower is sturdy, our cats fly (and yes, fly) into it and it holds strong, absolutely amazing! I do wish there was a bit more padding, especially in the cat hut. Our boys don’t use it even if we throw in their sleeping blankets.

Feline Fun: Cat scratch fun? Check. The side scratching board is most popular with the boys, and they’ve played with the dangling feather and spring toy here and there. We’ve hung some other toys to add playability but they mostly use it for sleeping. The windmill, I LOVE IT, yes, me, the owner. The boys have more entertainment watching me spin it all day than themselves, so I guess you can say this tower is a 3-for-1 special?

Feline Zzz: My goodness are the bowls great, one of our boys doesn’t really use it and choses to sleep on the top lookout like the lion king himself, but the other? Sleeping poses and photos galore. I do feel if your cat isn’t accustomed to glass tables or see through surfaces though, they’ll be a bit hesitant to sleep onto it, but just my thoughts.

Conclusions: A purchase I will never regret, thank you to my colleague! Love the build process, love the material quality. Not as much playability that I would like and my boys don’t really like the hut. Bowls are A-W-E-S-O-M-E and tower is perfect height. And last of all…WINDMILL!