The first and only pet I ever had was a cat that we purchased from a pet store. The first time I saw her, she was sitting atop some kind of perch with her little legs dangling off it like she'd just taken one of my mom's sleeping pills. My parents were actually shopping for a puppy since it was my brother's birthday and that's what he wanted. But for whatever reason, they decided to purchase the cat instead.
${Catname} is what we decided to name her and though I was bummed out about not getting a dog, she seemed to like me more than anyone else in the family. She always seemed pissed off with my other family members and especially hated my brother—which is kind of funny since she was his birthday present! The little kitty seemed so taken with me that she even started sleeping on my bed instead of her little cat tower. Over the next year, I think we grew pretty close.
Needless to say, when the news broke that cats all over the world had been secretly building flying saucers as part of a plan to escape from Earth, which they blamed humans for ruining, I was kind of speechless. Sure enough, we found ${Catname}'s flying saucer tucked away behind my dad's tool shed. It wasn't very big, maybe the size of a small car, and it looked like something ripped from one of those old 1950s space movies.
I confronted her about it, asking her why she didn't tell me she was planning on leaving. I was shocked when she answered back in perfect English, telling me that she didn't want to hurt my feelings and thought it best if she just left without saying goodbye. It did hurt my feelings though! Not just that she was hiding the truth from me but more so because I felt we had a special connection. It's embarrassing to admit but I started crying like a baby.
She assured me everything would be fine, that we'd have all the memories of our time together but it didn't seem like enough. I didn't want her to leave, I didn't want to have to get a new pet—like a stupid dog or fish. And, she was more than a pet to me, she was my best friend!
I knew I couldn't stand to lose her, so at night after everyone went to bed, I snuck into the backyard where her flying saucer was hidden and climbed inside. There wasn't a lot of space since she had already packed up her cat tower, litter box, and several bags of Meow Mix but I managed to find a really good hiding spot under the control panel. I wasn't sure when ${Catname} and the other cats of Earth planned on leaving but I had a pocket full of Skittles to hold me over for a few days at least.
Luckily, not long after I settled down, I heard someone approaching and the door to the craft snapping closed. Then I heard a loud buzzing that sounded kinda like my dad's electric razor, the one he used to shave his back. The next thing I realized, I was floating—I was in outer space! Exciting as that was, I felt kinda nauseous like maybe I was gonna barf.
I tried my best to hold back my gagging and heaving but I am a bit of a loud puker. I must have been REALLY loud because even over the whirring of the engine, ${Catname} heard me spewing...
***
"What the heck?" she says, slamming on the space brakes and bringing the saucer to a dead stop. ${Catname} yanks open the control panel door and sees you floating around in a blobby pool of your own vomit. More shockingly, it's not the small house cat you've grown accustomed to—${Catname} now looks like a teenage girl with shoulder-length hair and cat-like ears sticking out the top of her head. You blink as your eyes trail over the orange flight suit she's now wearing, her long cat-like tail twitching nervously behind her. "${Maincharacter}, what are you doing here!?" she hisses, her eyes wide with surprise.