The cats like it, but I'm more critical... (Canac Adventurer Cataerobic Centre)

Member Name: winklepicker

Product:	Canac Adventurer Cataerobic Centre
Date:	29/07/04 (424 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tall, Lots of rope-covered posts, Cats like fleecy hideaway

Disadvantages: Alignment and size of platforms, Lack of carpet covering on some areas, Portholes are too small

If you live in the UK, have cats, and wish to spend some disposable income on them, you may at some point consider the Canac Adventurer.

This cat activity center is very tall. It is designed to brace against the ceiling, and does so quite cleverly as long as your ceiling is not too short. If it is, you will wind up unscrewing a big fleecy tube from the world's longest bolt, which you will have just screwed it onto, and bracing the lot against the ceiling with some cardboard and blu-tak.

There are several bonus points about this item. It allows your cat to stretch to its full length whilst sharpening its claws. It allows your cat to spring like a jungle sprite to the topmost level. Cats seem to like playing with the dangling mouse/hamster/guinea pig/indeterminate stuffed toy until they bite through the cord and carry it away to locations undisclosed.

There are, however, a few design flaws in this item, although all cats are different and some may get on better than others.

The hanging fleecy hammock and odd brown fringe have never been used by mine, who regard the entire area with deep suspicion and a modicum of disdain. Unfortunately, the platform above this hammock (and the top platform) is an odd 6-sided shape which is quite narrow, and in this instance fitted with a hole to allow climbing down into the hammock, thus rendering the platform unsuitable for napping/picking on any other cats in the vicinity.

The fleecy hide-away is a good idea, but sadly poorly executed. The top and bottom are made of laminated wood - no carpet or fleecy covering, which seems odd indeed. I wound up putting a seperate fleecy bed inside mine and am considering gluing some traction-giving substance onto the exposed surfaces. The bottom platform of the hide-away has another porthole, but the aforementioned 6-sided be-holed platform above the hammock is too far below for this porthole to do anything but take up sleeping space. The hole in

the front of the hide-away wall does nothing but allow you to peer at your cat as they sleep peacefully. The fleecy wall of the hide-away interrupts the flow of sisal-rope-covered posts that lead to the top-most platform, then encouraging an odd leaping style of climbing. Finally, the hole in the top of the hide-away is in an awkward position for climbing both in and out of, and like all the similar holes (although this is the only one that's ever used) is too small for fat cats or cats who have to bend to get through them (necessary due to the location of the hole).

The top platform is thankfully lacking any portholes, but is still a bit small thanks to its 6-sided design.

My main quibble with the activity centre as a whole unit is that it's all built in a vertical line. It's hard for cats to travel from one level to another (especially in a downward direction) without contorting themselves or spending time with their rumps undignifiedly in the air, trying to figure out where to go next. Mine frequently resort to plunging to the floor from the top platform or the top of the fleecy hideaway, resulting in alarming thumps and thoughts of bone and joint damage. A few flying-squirrel-like leaps to the top of the sofa have been seen as well.

All in all, my cats enjoy this piece of cat furniture, but if I were to spend the same amount of money again, I would look out for a staggered design with no portholes, and for all surfaces to be large enough and covered in carpet or fleece (that fake fur stuff, besides looking icky (IMHO) also gets shredded and you wind up with bits of it everywhere).

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