Space Cat

My name is Mammamia. To everyone else I am an ordinary black and white cat with a Hitler moustache. But I am a space cat. It started by accident, well sort of. I was about seven. Someone had laid a plank of wood on top of a brick, seesaw like. I made the mistake of laying on the end of the plank.

To cut a long story short, after annoying dad, he wanted his own back. He jumped on the other end of the plank and I flew up in the air, did several somersaults and landed in next door's garden. Dad thought it was hilarious. Mum got really annoyed with him. Me, I had mixed feelings.

I didn't like the fact that dad did it out of malice. But I found the whole thing exhilarating. I could fly. Every day I laid on the plank, waiting for dad to launch me again. If mum was around it didn't happen, because she didn't think it was funny. But as soon as she was out - yahoo, up and away.

Eventually mum realised that I actually liked it and it became my weekly treat. Dad practised and eventually could propel me over two gardens. Even my kittens joined the fun once they were big enough to land safely on four paws. Mum even made me a little cape with an S for supercat.

It was my nineteenth birthday when I became a space cat. Dad had replaced the narrow plank with a much wider one. Mum and dad jumped on it together. Up, up I went, far higher than I'd ever been. Up through the clouds. Up through the atmosphere and into the darkness of space.

At first I struggled to breathe. Then I realised that was just panic. Now I was floating. The stars surrounded me, twinkling like birthday candles. The air was fresh up here. No car fumes to wrinkle my nose. No artificial fertilisers to make me sneeze. For the first time in my life I could really breathe.

I sort of swam to this planet that was mostly water with the odd island. I landed on one of the islands and stared into the water. It was teeming with fish. My claws soon managed to hook one. It was so much better than the stuff that comes in tins. The sun was so warm, I soon fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was back in my garden, laid on my plank. Was it all a dream or had I really been in space?

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