The blanket on the top square
When the top square holds
When the middle ledge wins
A shelf with no last step
Watch one climb before you dress another shelf
Dress the shelf they already stop on
You fold a blanket onto the highest shelf. The square looks private. The lower ledge stays bare. The cat climbs as far as the middle board, turns, and stays there. The top square stays neat.
The first move looks right because the highest place should be the safest place. It fails when the top square is a place the body cannot finish entering. Height on the wall is not the same thing as a usable stop.
The blanket on the top square
An indoor cat does not pick a shelf because it is the tallest board in the room. The cat picks a board that can take a landing, still shows the doorway, and still has a way back down. A blanket can make a hard board kinder. It cannot invent a last step that is not there.
Dressing the top answers the height you wanted. It does not answer the ledge the cat can actually hold.
When the top square holds
The top square holds when the jump from the middle ledge is short enough for a clean landing. The board is deep enough to turn. The opening of the shelf faces the door. Nobody stores boxes on the same square. The cat tests the blanket with one paw, pulls the rest of the body up, and stays.
On that afternoon the bare middle ledge is not a failure. The top board was already a stop, not only a ceiling.
When the middle ledge wins
The same blanket fails when the last jump is a stretch the cat will not finish. The middle ledge already shows the room. The top square shows only a wall or a stack of stored things. The cat stops where the view and the landing both exist.
Look at the first pause on the climb, not at the board you dressed. If the pause is always the middle ledge, the top blanket is sitting on a board that is not in use. Moving the blanket down one level will do more than folding a thicker pad onto a board the paws never finish.
A top shelf that holds winter bags will also stay empty. The cat is not rejecting height. The cat is rejecting a square that is already owned by objects.
A shelf with no last step
Some rooms have a high board and nothing under it but air. The cat can see the blanket and still have no launch point. A chair pulled under that board for one afternoon is not furniture advice. It is a temporary last step. If you will not leave a step there, dress the board the cat can reach without one.
If the cat uses the top only when you lift them there, the square is a place they will occupy, not a place they will choose. Leave the blanket on the board they climb to alone.
Watch one climb before you dress another shelf
Leave the blanket where it is today. Do not add a second one on a different board. After the next climb, see which square held the body. If the middle ledge held it, move the cloth there and leave the top for storage. If the top held it, stop rearranging the lower boards to chase a problem you no longer have.
Do not treat an unused high blanket as proof that the cat hates shelves. Treat it as a record of where the climb actually ended.
Dress the shelf they already stop on
An empty top square after you dressed it is not proof that the cat rejected a high place. It is proof that the stop and the cloth did not share a board. The blanket can stay in the room. Put it on the ledge that already holds the pause, clear the objects off that ledge, or leave a last step if you still want the top.
The middle ledge can keep the hours when the highest board is only a ceiling.
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