Scratching posts get pushed into the corner where nobody has to look at them, which is exactly where cats have no interest in scratching. They scratch on the route through a room and beside where they sleep. Putting a tabletop across the posts settles that argument diplomatically: it becomes a side table you are content to have beside the sofa, and the cat gets a post where they actually wanted one.

The two columns are wrapped in sisal, which is the material cats will genuinely use. Carpet frays into loops that catch claws, cardboard shreds within a fortnight, and neither gives the resistance a cat is looking for when they stretch and drag downwards. Sisal does. The columns are set into chunky moulded bases shaped like boots, which is what keeps the whole piece steady when a cat throws their full weight into a stretch, and a post that wobbles is a post that gets abandoned. A small round top sits across the two columns.

• Two sisal-wrapped columns for vertical scratching
• Small round tabletop spanning the posts
• Chunky moulded boot-shaped bases for stability
• Two colourways, purple and green
• Listed in the version without a cat nest

Read the options carefully. Both versions listed are the configuration without a cat nest, so what arrives is the scratcher and table rather than a bed. No height is published either, and height is the figure that decides everything: a post a cat cannot stretch to full length against will be ignored in favour of your sofa arm.

Who it's for: One or two-cat homes where a bare scratching post would not be welcome in the living room, but the cat needs one there anyway.