Scratch

Short story ^^

The tree reached up towards the sky, its branches outstretched towards the clouds, as though it wanted to grasp them. At the bottom, a small tabby kitten paced around it, leaping over its gnarling roots as they gradually scarred the earth. Suddenly, the kitten leaped up onto one of the roots. He clambered slightly further up, but lost his grip in the smooth bark, and consequently tumbled to the ground, landing at his starting point on the ground. 
      A few days later, the kitten attempted to climb the tree again. He clumsily scrambled up the tree this time, before slipping down again. 
     The kitten soon grew into a young cat, and he continued to attempt to climb the tree.  Eventually he reached the first branch. That day he relaxed on the branch, and gazed out over his garden, until the sun hung low over the horizon, dappling a soft red beam over the grass.  He then slid down the tree again.
      He continued diligently to climb the tree. His progression was slow, and a long time after he began attempting to climb it, he reached the second branch,
  eventually the third, and subsequently the fourth.  Each time he paused to look over the garden, and witnessed it changing.  
      The cat did not know it, but each branch he reached was a other year of his life gone by.  By the time he had reached the ninth branch, he found his joints weren't as supple as the time he had climbed onto the first branch. Still, he continued to climb the tree almost every day. 
     Eventually, the cat clambered slowly onto the eleventh branch, the last branch of the tree. By this stage, his muzzle was flecked with white hairs, his hearing had deteriorated, and his joints ached slightly. Yet the cat had remained determined to reach the top of the tree, and eventually he did. Proud of his achievement, he looked out across the area. He curled up an closed his eyes gently, red light dancing over his fur. He drifted off, never to awake again. His life was accomplished. 

"It takes a lifetime to learn how to live."