Cat's Best Original

The list closes with wood, and with one of its more surprising placings. Cat's Best Original, the German wood fibre litter that is a fixture of European homes and widely admired elsewhere, arrives at No. 50 with fifty six, the foot of this year's table, a result that says as much about the severity of the bench as about the litter itself.

Its even keel is its character. Clumping, odour, tracking and sustainability each score a solid three. The wood fibre clumps enough to lift, controls smell adequately, keeps a reasonable share of its grain in the tray, and carries the renewable, biodegradable conscience of a plant material, flushable in small amounts. None of these is a failure; all are simply middling on a list where the leaders score fives.

The anchor is dust, marked at two, the lowest single figure to define an entry here. On this bench the wood fibre threw more fine particles on the pour and through use than the litter's gentle reputation suggests, and that one axis, weighted as heavily as the rest, is what drags an otherwise inoffensive litter to the back of the field.

It would be wrong to read this placing as a verdict that Cat's Best is a poor litter; it is renewable, long lasting, and beloved by many, and on a softer scale it would sit comfortably higher. But a strict, instrument led ranking treats dust without mercy, and here it tells. For the owner who loves wood and is untroubled by a dustier pour, it remains a worthy, sustainable choice. A respected litter, closing the list on the one axis it cannot quite master.