My cat loves her cat tree! She's on it everyday either playing or sleeping. The  rope scratching posts provide a great place for her to scratch although the rest of the material on the tree does it seem to interest her when comes to scratching.  It has more of a velvety feel to it and she prefers more of a carpet feel while scratching. She's still pretty small at 5 months old so I can't say if it'll work for a large full grown cat  but it seems sturdy. For anyone with a kitten or soon getting one, I would  recommend getting this tree.