A strange Planet (continued)
I ran as fast as my space-travel weakened legs would carry me through a green field. There were monsters more than one-hundred times my size occupying the green field,
and I couldn’t tell if they were friendly, carnivorous, or inconsequential to my life on this planet. As I ran in my panicked state, a large brindle tom cat was stalking his pray in the lush green field.
Just as I stopped to see what that prey might be, he lifted a field mouse in his powerful jaws and snapped its neck in one motion. I instantly had respect for such a deft hunter, because King Tom and I had all our meals prepared for us by our servants, who must have done what this cat was doing to feed us.
The large cat saw me, and I was terrified by him and the large animals that were slowly encroaching on me and the turf that I was trying to claim.
“Hello,” the large cat said in a language that I understood. I suppose that Catonese is a universal language, so I surmised that all my studying of the language called English that I had done on the space ship in anticipation of landing on the only inhibited planet (as far as I know) in the next galaxy had been a waste of time.
However, the large tom cat, whom I was to learn was named “Barney” was a friendly fellow. He offered to share his dinner with me, and I accepted since I was starving. During our dinner conversation, Barney had informed me that the large creatures in the field were called cows, and that they were herbivores Barney said that cows are very sweet creatures who only liked to eat grass, oats and the dried version of what they had been eating in the field, which was grass. Since Barney’s bed was made of the dried version of the grass in the field, I decided to try it and see what it tasted like. This upset Barney a great deal, but I was curious to see if the dried version of grass was any better than the fresh green grass that I had tried to eat to satiate my hunger while in the field. Neither version, though, was to my liking, much to Barney’s relief.
Barney said that his bed made of hay was quite comfortable and invited me to join him for the evening. When I declined his offer, he assumed that it was because of his station in life.
“Look, I know that I’m a simple barn cat and that you’re a queen cat from another planet, but I have a good life here. My job pays me all the rodents I can devour. Additionally, my humans made me this comfortable bed made of hay. Would you like to join me for a cat nap in my bed?”
I declined Barney’s offer with a weak explanation that, even though we were separated by light years, I was still technically married to King Tom. Barney protested briefly, but then sent me to the nearest road after I asked him how to get to civilization. A farm, I surmised, was no place for a queen cat who’d been queen of her planet at one time. Royalty does not do farm work, I informed my new acquaintance.
After Barney headed me in the right direction, I came upon a fueling station for large trucks, so I jumped on a large truck that filling up at the fueling station. It was headed east on something called an interstate highway. The truck turned north, and then terminated its voyage on the east coast of America, where I was to meet my second husband.
d.: Oh, wow! I promised to fill in on the night shift at The Kennel for one of the nurses who’s on vacation tonight, since I don’t have to work for a couple of days. It’s getting close to time to get ready to go, so I’ll continue the short story “A Strange Planet” by my partner, Cal.E. Katt tomorrow, right here on Cal.E.’s Korner
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