Tomorrow is the morning I am not looking forward to. It has been decided before the project can move forward, that my Fir tree which towers over my house will have to be completely removed. The arborist gives the age of this tree well over 200 years old! It not only is a Fir Tree, but it’s also a Fur Tree. This tree and I go way back. Unfortunately a lot of kitties have scampered up its branches in the last 30 years. They have all been successfully rescued and one, my beloved mackeral tabby  Gulliver who loves to travel, hence his name. He was so high up in the tree I could hardly see him. This was around the time we moved here. Mike had come in to tell me that Gully had been chasing a chipmunk. Now, Mike explained: Even with his tallest extension ladder he would not be able to reach this kitty.

Gulliver and I were inseparable based on his early beginnings and how he was rescued. He was quite sickly and we had to go through a lot together to get him better. He loved to travel. He would go with us everywhere when we were in Alaska. He even would hop in to the UPS truck from time to time. The driver used to get a big kick out of it and used to drop him off at the end of his rounds. We could keep all the windows down in our truck and Gulliver wouldn’t even consider jumping out he was an amazing kitty.

I go outside and I look up in this tree. I scolded him for going up there. I yelled to him: “Gulliver you come down right now!“

well he did just that. He jumped! From Highup in the treetops, this kitty took a leap of faith and jumped right for me. I couldn’t believe it I’ve had to do a lot of rescues out of trees and never once has a cat ever jumped down on its own accord. I knew it wasn’t going to survive the fall all I could do was pray that I would catch him in some manner. He landed on my chest with such force he knocked me over on my back. He scratched my face my neck in my chest trying to get away and then scrambled into the house but he was unhurt. I wasn’t so lucky but at least he was down out of the tree and he never went back up it again.

As stated earlier this tree and I go way back and now it’s going away. We made the mistake of trusting a arborist in the past who wanted to top the tree. If anybody has evergreen trees don’t ever top them. They carry a protein in their sap which allows them to grow normally. Once you interrupt that process the tree loses the ability to grow correctly. My tree is growing in ways a tree should not grow. It has become a danger to the house, the neighbors house, the power poles and the cat enclosure which is right underneath it.

they will be here tomorrow morning to remove it completely. I can’t even ask for a piece of it to retain for the kitties to climb on because pine oil is toxic to kitties. It has kept my house cool in the summer and warm in the winter and now it’s going away. Knowing how sensitive Bentley is to this type of activity and noise. I went ahead and put extra pieces of plywood up in front of the cat enclosure to block off as much activity as I can from the cats view. The vet also gave me some sedatives to give all of them because I don’t have any other place I can stash them during the work. Hopefully Bentley will not have a negative reaction and the pills will keep him calm enough that they can do what they have to do and leave.

I have warned the arborist that we have a cranky pants raccoon that lives in the top of that tree. Although I did also tell him that I haven’t seen this raccoon since the fires. I don’t know if he survived the fires or if he moved on but he may be up there. And he doesn’t like anyone in his tree. If this tree could talk what stories it would tell. The damage is so great that the wood is not even sellable. Plus the arborist explained that the tree is so wide around the trunk that most mills aren’t set up anymore to cut that wide of wood. All of it’s just going to be discarded. I find that rather sad.