"Hey, you, stop right there!" the dogcatcher screamed. He had so little knowledge, and so little grace for someone who also works with worderful felines like us. We jumped on the concrete fence of a white house and ran towards the north, in hope of a few peaceful moments.
He let us go, it seems, so I told my mission partner to slow down, until we stopped on the edge of a bridge. It was already dark, but to our eyes, the world still looked as bright as day.
"They'll catch us tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. Or the day after." He stopped to let the words sink in. "I can't stand it."
"You're not scared, are you?" I asked him calmly. "I think ours will help us if..." I said as I looked up to Saturn, our old home. "When it happens. They can't be that mean."
He also looked at the giant celestial body in the sky, curiosity lingering in his eyes. "Do you ever think they're trying to help us? With the light, I mean." He paused shortly. "Sometimes I have the impression the light comes from there, not here."
"I don't know, I feel like they hate us." I looked in my partner's eyes. "Why else would they send us here?"
He focused his eyes on the water below us, then laid down next to me and cried: "We'll never get out of here!" In his frustration, he turned on his back. "The extraterrestrials hate us, and the humans hate us, and even animals hate us! And everyone hates everyone! I don't get it!"
"Too many questions, not enough answers." I added sadly. "Now calm down, we're smart, we'll do something, even if the world hates us." He meowed something incomprehensible, then turned to face me, giving me a sad smile.
"Let's sleep, this hunger's killing me." he suggested.
In my dream, I walked on two legs and had a pear-shaped head. I was back in my original form. My destination, my home, was right in front of me. We were only separated by an ocean of actual water. It seemed so close, yet so far away. I desperately tried to get there, but the waves always sent me back and the water burned my skin. I looked at the planet again, but now it was even further away. I gave up, and then someone called my name. Behind me was my partner, but as a cat, still and serene, not wishing to leave. Dreaming, I became aware that at least I had him, and I didn't need to get back anytime soon.
The next morning, we discussed our options. I didn't mention the dream, or my newest realization, although I carried with me the suffocating feeling of that dream for the rest of the morning. We carefully went into town to get some food. Well, we tried.
At noon, as we were sitting under a park bench, debating how to fulfil our mission sent by our brothers, an old lady came and sat down.
"I wasn't in the mood for any company today." I told my partner just above a whisper. Unfortunately, the lady heard my meow.
She got up and kneeled down so fast it seemed unreal, then she picked me up. "Hello, little one!" Her voice was bright, and her eyes the same. I screamed and scratched, trying to make her let go of me, but she was holding me by my scruff, so far away from her body until I calmed down, and in the meantime, she also picked up my partner. "You two look very bad!" She spoke to us like we were babies. "What about I take you home and give you a bath and some food, yes darlings?" She wasn't bothered in the slightest by us, two dirty homeless cats. No, in fact, this attitude of hers left me speechless, and I'm sure my partner could say the same, if only he wasn't so busy making himself comfortable between her breasts.
On the way, everything appeared so much more dazzling than before. Even the colours, which before weren't so impressive, now were overwhelming with such a radiance.
Almost in an instant, she stopped in her tracks and opened with her elbow a door, and just then I thought I understood in how much trouble we were in. Before I could jump from the couch and sprint out, she had already closed the door.
My partner already sprawled on his pillow, clearly enjoy the treatment.
I jumped back next to him and tried to reason with him, after all, we were a team. "Woah, we need to leave, don't you realize we're inside a stranger's home?" But it was in vain, he wouldn't listen to me.
I started to panic, to look around for a way to escape. All of this hard work of remaining free just for an old lady to catch us shouldn't go to waste. She's in the kitchen now, I can hear a knife of a cutting board. Only she knows what she'd doing, she's probably preparing her knife to kill both of us.
I went next to the kitchen door. I still die, whether I wait here or I go and see what she's cutting. She didn't observe me, but I saw the meat that she was putting in two different bouls. So I hoped that I was maybe wrong, and a little bit more hopeful and calmer, I returned next to my partner.
The lady came back with two big bouls full to the brim with wet cat food and small pieces of cooked chicken liver. I have to admit, I couldn't resist that heavenly smell.
After she took the bouls from us to clean them, my partner peered over to me. "You know, I think we did a great job."
"Yeah?" I asked, still feeling euphoric.
"Yeah, we're wonderful partners. I think we already fulfilled our mission." I smiled at him.
"I think we did the exact opposite."
