Most cat trees are pretty ugly. Sure, there have been some cool, geeky ones popping up over the last few years, but most main stream cat trees are just too ugly for the posh homes of the 1%. Enter Neko Cat Tree (I’m pretty sure that just means the cat cat tree…), a stupidly expensive, but very pretty new architectural sculpture that also works as a cat tree.
Aside from looking a little like the World Series trophy, this million yen ($8,800 USD) cat toy is being hailed by many as a marvel of pet architecture and design. Part of it’s allure is the fact that, much like high-priced water in a fancy restaurant, the designers are making a point to include the origins of all the ingredients. For example, the wood is sourced from Japan’s Hida region and it’s marble base is sourced from Greece. All fabrics are sourced from Denmark and any hemp rope used in the sculpture was sourced from Japan.
While I will concede that it’s pretty, the reality of it is that the price is just insane. There are around 60 dowels used in this build. You can get 5 packs of 48″ ones on Amazon for $12. So that’s $144, and I bet you can get them cheaper of you just head down to Home Depot. The other boards shouldn’t cost you more than $20, the Fabric shouldn’t be more than $10 and let’s be generous and say the hemp will cost you $10 as well. Finally, you’ve got the Marble base. According to Google, marble costs an average of $40 per square foot. At most, you’ll need 4 square feet. So, let’s do the math:
Wood dowels: $144
Wood planks: $20
Fabric: $10
Hemp: $10
Marble: : $160 (Maximum)
Total: $344
Basically, this modern “wonder” could be built by any semi industrious cat owner in an afternoon for less than $350.
