On the ship

We’re finally aboard the spaceship.

There was a crowd of Princess Katie’s devoted admirers waving their hankies and blowing kisses at our send off. Katie trotted up the gangplank and turned briefly and blew a single kiss to the crowd. I, on the other hand, carried all the luggage – including velvet pillows, extra diamond collars, catnip treats and Katie’s favorite crunchies – into our cabins and settled in.

Princess Katie’s compartment is spacious, as befits Royalty and an ambassadorette to our home world of Zantha. It is filled with cat toys and plenty of room to run around. It has trees to climb and places to nap. And a bowl that is always filled with fresh cream and another one with salmon and tuna. I was delighted to see how wonderful it was and thought the Princess would dash about and play with everything right away but she accepted all the fuss with a quiet dignity that befits a cat of her rank and settled herself on a cushion to wash her face.

I knew that if her sister Maggie Mae was here she would be on the highest branch of the tree before you could say lickety-split and before you could wonder how she got up there so fast she would be down on the ground playing with a catnip mouse.

What I didn’t know is that while I was settling and admiring my slightly smaller but just as wonderful cabin down deep in the hold of the ship in one in one of the boxes way in the back a pair of yellow eyes were blinking awake.