Current events and the dispelling of a myth
I have oft heard it said that if a cat climbs a tree and won’t come down then you should not worry, because eventually the cat will get hungry and get itself down.
WRONG!
This is not to say that all cats won’t come down, but in certain instances some will refuse. Which had been the case of the lady next door’s kitty. It got up and stayed there crying plaintively for a week and a half in the rain storms that came through with winds of up to 50 mph! Knowing that the firemen will no longer do this service I called our vet and got the number for a tree service that would do the job… for a fee.
A fee of $170 to be exact! YIKES! Not to be cold-hearted, but it isn’t even my cat! So in seconds I came up with a plan. I asked him how much he would charge for the kitty removal if he was already out here to remove a very big oak in the backyard that grows over our house? To which he replied:
Kitty removal is free if I am already there, but the oak sounds like quite a feat. That will be expensive.
I already knew this and had put it off for many years due to the cost. The tree was huge, growing about 12 feet from the house, and dropping tons of leaves, ball bearing shaped acorns, and very BIG limbs onto the roof and into the yard. You must believe me when I say that going out the back door gave me great trepidation!
Top Five Reasons to remove an ancient oak:
- The leafy mess
- The dropping limbs
- Damage to our roof and the rain gutters from same
- The half-inch sized, ball bearing shaped acorns
- Damage to me, when I slipped and fell on said acorns leaving me with a sprain in my lower back and a small tear in my rotator cuff (can you say OUCH!)
I had no problem saying, “YES.”
I was glad to be told that he is licensed, bonded and insured, and that because of the poor kitty he would come out that morning and get the work done! Whew!
Kitty Extraction
Kitty up a tree!
Up elevator.
Making friends. 🙂
Down elevator. Note the kitty bucket!
These were supposed to be in a carousel to save download time, but for what ever reason they would not open. SORRY! To appreciate how high up that kitty was just note the position of those power lines in the first and last photos!
Everything went exactly as he planned! He removed our fence, tied the tree with ropes, applied pressure with a tractor as they cut it and dropped it right where he told me he would in our yard…
The Chief Doggy Inspector sez: Watch out! Hold it tight! T-I-M-B-E-R!!!
DOWN!
and also into the pasture. I chose to do it this way because dismembering it from the top down would have cost us DOUBLE the price even with the cost of taking down the fence and putting it back up for felling it.
Well, it didn’t take three minutes before the owner was up here with her hair on fire because we didn’t tell her we were going to drop it on their land. In my defense I had called earlier and said the tree was coming down, offered them the wood for their wood stove (she seemed grateful) and mentioned the fence was being removed too. I guess I thought it was explanatory. My bad. 😦 As well, the manager for the job had gone down three times that morning before they started the work, to talk to said owner, but no one would answer the door.
In the tree men’s defense the tree landed EXACTLY where they said it would and causing no damage to their lovely oaks. They even cleaned up every little twig that broke off during the felling, dismembering and carting away of the huge limbs.
I do hope this is the end of this kerfuffle.
Meanwhile, our yard is going to take some work to make it look nice. Sadly, too much shade and this summer’s drought have left it devoid of grass, but we will now have more sun and can choose a more sturdy grass for the new lawn.
The remains
Free firewood
Hurry spring!
PS on the Process Pledge: The new wool coat had hit a snag trying to gather all the materials to put it together. Doesn’t anyone do fashion sewing in Huntsville? I am having to order everything online. Well, I did find an awesome button at Jo Anne’s, but with all the stuff they have packed to the rafters in their stores, wouldn’t you imagine that I could come out of there with the thread, lining and stabilizer I needed too? Nope. The muslin is cut, my dress form has been reshaped to add that extra bit about the middle and to reflect the ravages of age and gravity on the my bust-line 😯 and the rest of the bits are in the mail!
Life on the Farmlet 
oh dear oh dear – what a lot of expense and hassle for a kitty that isn’t even yours! I hope kitty’s owner offered to chip in towards the cost?
We had Ducky (big more than 6 kilo cat) who managed to get himself stuck in a tree. He got up okay, chasing a squirrel, but then got so far out on a limb, he couldn’t get back down. Added to that, he’d Fallen in the Stream before climbing the tree, so he was also cold & wet. This all happened at 10pm, when it was getting dark lol. Husband and I managed to get him down, and the poor cat didn’t leave the house for a week lol.
It wasn’t so bad, Claire. I really did need to get rid of that tree and better now while we have the money. I’m just glad the tree service agreed to do it while he was out here for the tree. Don’t you just love that little kitty bucket to keep it, and the tree man, safe on the way down?
Poor Ducky! Glad you were able to retrieve him without further insult to his health and safety.
So much to go through but thank you for helping the poor cat.
Lillian, all’s well that ends well, I say. The cat is home, the offending tree is gone, and the owner of the land apologized for being so upset and her husband still wants the wood for their home heating. I’m happy. 😉
Was the neighbor worried about the cat all the time it was in the tree? Wow, poor kitty! I would have been trying to get it down as well…
You have a very kind heart!
Lisa, she did try to get it down, but the more she tried the higher it climbed! I thought of a bigger ladder, we have one, but I don’t do ladders anymore with my knees. 😦 I’m just happy to see that it is down and staying close to home now. ❤
And all is well with the world! Well done getting the cat down AND now you can start work on a lovely drought loving garden in that big sunny spot you have acquired! c
I have actually entertained that notion, Celi! Though I might have to go for plants that can handle both drought and sustained rain. Is there such a thing? I really hate being a slave to a lawn. I will put on my thinking cap and see what I come up with. We usually have a lot of rain here.
I think I’d have got the idea your tree was falling in my paddock if you’d told me the fence was coming down to make room, so no, not your bad, her stupid. I’m assuming it’s a different neighbour who owns the cat? If not, there should be a bill heading her way. Another year or so, and that oak timber should be ready for burning, and it’ll be magnificent, slow burning, hard and dense.
Kate, yes, the cat owner and the land owner are different people. 😀 And the oak is going to be moved as soon as we have a few dry days… guess we’ll be looking at it for awhile yet. I just wish WE had a wood stove to use it in.
These tree fellers are wonderfully skilful people. I am glad that the collateral cat was saved.
Thanks, Tom! Yes I was really surprised at how skillful they were and impressed that they didn’t use spikes to climb the tree when rescuing that cat! Good tree men don’t use spikes because they can spread disease between the trees.
I didn’t know that.
Poor kitty! I’m so glad it got down safely. It must have been hungry and exhausted. Believe it or not, we had to retrieve the pet squirrel once. Since he lived in a big, caged area or he house, he hadn’t been up a tree since he was born in one. When he decided to give it a try, he got up, and froze. We had to get a ladder, climb up, and entice him along until he got to the roof and we could snatch him. Sigh.
It is good that you got the tree down. That thing could have done a lot of damage if it fell the wrong way on its own. Thank the kitty for helping you make the decision to do it!
Linda, it certainly was! I gave it a bit of tuna and then used the can as bait to lead it back home. I was afraid to give it too much to eat or drink because after all that time I was afraid that too much food would make it sick. It hasn’t moved much from the carport since it got home yesterday. Probably a good thing, as I won’t be able to help it again in the future.
but who’s cat was it!?
Well, actually the kitty in question belongs to the neighbor who ran over Miss Dixie, but that’s not the kitty’s fault…
you are a hero to me! I cant believe anyone would ignore their cat like that. And you are right, some will not come down. Luckily mine thins he is some ind of monkey and runs up them and then repels down them again. As much at home in trees as on the ground.
Connie, I don’t think she was ignoring the cat. She tried several times to get it to come down, but it kept climbing higher into the tree. (30 feet up by my estimate.) As for calling someone to help, well, I don’t think she had the funds for that. 😦
That tree is the same one our kitty Claus got stuck in when we first got him. He was smart; he never got up there again! 😀
Lucky for the cat you needed that tree down.
Shame you couldn’t get all the haberdashery nearby. So many people seem to sew clothing now you’d expect to get what you need. We’re lucky to have a fantastic haberdashery shop in the nearby very very tiny town – you have to ask for what you need but I’ve never not got something. Makes me feel lucky
Norma, you are lucky! Here in the states they have cut education down to the bare basics. It is an all or nothing teach to the test system here. By and large, the kids don’t learn Home EC, wood shop, art, etc. in school anymore. Nor do most of them care. It’s all about branding when they shop. Sad. If they do sew, they make quilts and bags, but not clothing. I never took home EC, but then I had a mom who sewed almost all our clothing. It rubbed off on me from age 7 on!
Norma, I take that back! In HS I took a class called Fashion Sewing and Tailoring! I made a cape and *”Annie Hall” type slacks of fine wool, all lined… in tangerine orange. I was really into orange back then. 😯
Like these, but without the suspenders, LOL!
Photo courtesy of This Next
I am hoping we are able to stay that way. The home economics teacher retired and they haven’t found a replacement yet. We have a craft group of up to 18 people in the village – that’s quite a high percent of the adult women here. We’ve had a teenager come & learn to make a skirt. I’m hopeful for the future if not confident
I do hope they find a replacement! 🙂
Love this story! Silly pussycat and even sillier neighbour!
Annie, I have never met a cat so grateful to be rescued! It was wound all about the feet of the fellow that got it down, and purring like motorboat! I was just glad to be able to help.
I’ll admit I did not know cats would sometimes never come down. Our cat climbed a tree once and then wouldn’t come down. I was dreading having to call my neighbor, who is the chief of our volunteer fire department and has his own bucket truck. After hours of trying to coax him down we finally just left him alone and many hours later he somehow got down.
Sorry you had to go to such extreme measures to extract yours!
Bill, it was worth it to see how grateful the neighbor’s kitty was and it did provide the impetus to actually deal with our tree. 😉
I’m glad your cat had more sense!
It sounds as if you did a good deed for the cat. Here we would not have bothered since our area is overrun with feral cats, and neighbors who feed countless cats draw even more to the area. I find cat parts here continually, as the cat population attract foxes and coyotes which creates a whole separate issue. As for the tree, it did keep most of your backyard shaded, and even though I hate to see a good hardwood tree go, I know you need the sunlight for gardening and you need to be proactive about keeping limbs from the house – and that tree was mighty close to the house. It sounds like a win, win situation for all… which is always a wonderful thing!
Lori, cat life here has been limited for some time! We don’t know who is doing it, or how they are doing it, but someone has been poisoning all the cats!!! We have managed to keep Lil’Bit and Neville safe, but everyone else around us has lost all of theirs. It makes me wonder again about what really happened to Claus.
I am pretty sure that I will miss that extra shade out back in the hottest part of the summer, but for the rest of the year not so much. I did feel the tiniest bit guilty about its demise as it was old and as you say, a hard wood. However, we still have the two maples, a 50 foot holly, and several dogwoods back here and now I don’t have to be afraid to go out our back door. 🙂
I do hope we can get a little patch of grass going for the dogs now that the sunlight can reach the soil. 😉
Oh no! That’s terrible about the cats. Claus was such a handsome cat too. Well, be sure to keep Lil’Bit and Neville safe!
Not to worry! They are so well fed they don’t want to go anywhere else. 😉
I know, I really miss my Claus Kitty. 😦
Wow! What a lot of work! Sorry to hear. I’m glad everything ended well.
It was a lot of work, Ipuna, but I didn’t have to do any of it. 😉 The tree men did! And yes, it did end well, even the neighbor is smiling at me again. 😀
You crack me up, Lynda. Don’t want to piss neighbors off. 😂 Yeah to tree men! 🙌
Quite the adventure for all concerned!
I’m glad to have arrived so many days after you posted as I had many questions … all of which were answered by reading the comment section 🙂
Laurie, glad you stopped by and that your questions were answered. You’ve answered one of mine.
Do visitors actually read all of these comments?
Well, I guess they do!
Sometimes I read them, sometimes I skim through …just depends on the post subject … and the number of comments 🙂
We still have one fabric store that carries all the goods. Jo-Ann has diversified into so many other crafts (to stay in business, I imagine). Hancock closed their stores last year. I don’t know many who sew, and most of that is quilting.
Patti, around here quilting is the Queen! You want to quilt? There’s a store for that. Several! But fashion sewing is dead. I get flyers for Jo-Ann but never find anything I want, or that is of good quality, when I shop there. I miss Hancock! I always found what I needed and loved their sales.