I never thought that I would see...

Such controversy surrounding removing a tree. Yesterday the city removed this huge tree from the parkway of my house at my request. Pieces would fall off of it during storms and it’s sap would destroy the paint on my cars. Its roots are massive and are coming up through my front lawn destroying the grass and breaking pipes underneath causing sewers to back up into my house. Over the last 6 years, there has been just under $40,000 in damage to my home, property and cars caused by this tree. I can only imagine what would happen if something I owned caused $40,000 in damage to city property.

I didn’t think I was being unreasonable asking it to be removed. The guys who came yesterday to cut it down did their best to try to change my mind. You’d think I was asking them to slaughter a litter of puppies or something. They told me to expect “flack” and possibly “retaliation” from people. He said other people have actually had angry protesters in front of their houses. I wasn’t going to change my mind, but I was beginning to feel like a tree-killer or something.

I’m not a big believer in coincidence. I do think most things happen for a reason. Sometimes you just have to look a little harder to clearly see the connections. Yesterday, while they were bringing down the tree, I couldn’t get out of my house for a little while and my son was going to be late for band camp. When we left, their trucks were blocking my normal route so we went in another direction. I approached the busy street and saw traffic moving slowly and trying to avoid something. There was a cocker spaniel in the street just frozen in fear and all of these people are trying to drive around it. (I’m the bad one because I want this tree cut down?) I put my car in park, stopped traffic, scooped up the dog and put it in my car. It was an older dog, obviously blind in one eye, but very sweet even though it was terrified. We never would have been in that place at that time if this tree ordeal wasn’t happening. I turned the dog over to animal control because it had no tags and when I called later I was relieved to learn that he had been reunited with its owner.

I'm positive that someone loved that dog and I'm going to go out on a limb (haha!) and say I'm sure no one loved my tree. I was reassured that I have my priorities straighter than most people do and I am not a heartless, tree-killer. This is a good thing.