I bought the giant scratching post for my two large cats (18 pounds, 14 pounds) to scratch, with the hope that they would climb up it and perch on the top (which they couldn't do with the giant cat tree). They do exactly that, and they enjoy scratching it and playing on and around it. One cat took to it immediately and the other took about a week to come around. The post is tall enough that even the biggest cat can get a full body stretch when scratching, but it would need to be 1.5x taller in order to really give them something to climb. Smaller cats will get more climbing out of it. The post is quite stable, although the 18 pound cat has tipped it over once when jumping from it. Apart from not quite being tall enough for my cats to climb, the only real flaw is that the material on the very top of the post is a magnet for cat hair. It accumulates more hair than one would think possible, which is not ideal for an object designed for cats. But overall I am pleased with the purchase and expect it to well outlast cardboard scratching posts and to be a long-term money saver.