Tale #37 -- Ben's First Blog Entry

Buzz the Space Cat

Buzz was a small, shiny black cat who lived in a suburb of Montreal. He was very clever and understood human speech well. He could also understand what dogs and birds were saying.

Five people lived in the house with Buzz: Mr. and Mrs. Champignon and their three teen-aged children: Elsie, Doreen, and Derek. Derek was excellent at math. He wanted to be an astronaut, so his parents sent him to space camp one summer. Buzz hid in Derek's gym bag and went to space camp too. Because he was a clever cat, he learned just as much as Derek.

The next summer, the family went on vacation together. They stopped to watch the launch of a space mission to Alpha Centauri, the closest star to our sun. This was the very first hyperdrive flight in human history. The trip would be only three days long because this space ship could travel faster than light.

Buzz decided he wanted to see Alpha Centauri. He sneaked onto the space ship and hid under the mission commander's chair. When the space ship was out of reach of earth's gravity, everybody was weightless. Buzz started to float around the cabin. He looked so funny that the astronauts forgot to be angry with him.

When they arrived at Alpha Centauri, they landed on a Class M planet which was a lot like earth. The people there looked like giant birds. To his surprise, Buzz discovered that he could speak and understand their language! He told the bird people all about earth, and explained that the astronauts were friendly explorers. The bird people welcomed the astronauts and had a big banquet for them.

When the astronauts were ready to go home, the bird people were sad.

"Stay with us, Buzz!" they said. "We want to learn more about space travel. It would be so nice to explore the galaxy!"

"Sorry," Buzz said. "Derek would miss me. That fluffy white Persian cat next door would miss me too. She always watches me from her upstairs window."

When the mission returned to Earth, Buzz was given a special medal for helping the astronauts communicate with the aliens. Then Buzz went home to rest until his next adventure. The fluffy white Persian cat next door was very impresssed when she saw Buzz' picture in the paper.