Space Cat Meets Mars is the third of Ruthven Todd's Space Cat series, illustrated by Paul Galdone. Flyball and his human, Colonel Fred Stone, have left Venus to get back to the moon (See book two, Space Cat Visits Venus). It's a good thing that rocketship Halley is extremely well stocked, because something goes wrong and they wind up going to Mars instead.

The pieces of Venusian moss that enabled Flyball and Fred to read each others' thoughts have stopped working, but Fred knows that Flyball understands his words. Fred understands what Flyball's behaviors mean. This means Flyball knows what Fred means when he tells the cat that he's getting fat. Flyball is shocked and starts exercising.

The landing on Mars isn't easy, but Fred pulls it off. The air is pretty thin for humans, but there's more at cat level, so Flyball gets to explore without his detested spacesuit. Fred finds the problem, which he's going to have to clear by hand.

Flyball needs to get back to the rocket before the temperature drops drastically after sundown. He meets some Martian life forms, but the prize find is a Martian cat. Moofa is female. She helps Fred and Flyball survive a storm. Flyball is quite taken with the pretty cat. Will she stay on Mars or decide to join Flyball and Fred?

NOTES:

1. See book one, Space Cat, for the rocket ZOX-1. See book two, Space Cat Visits Venus for that adventure.

2. 8 pounds is 3.6 kilograms. 10 pounds is 4.5 kilograms. 3.5 pounds is 1.58 kilograms.

Moofa's back story is a tragic one. She's a nice cat as well as being beautiful. I enjoyed her interactions with Flyball, especially Flyball explaining the relationship between Earth cats and humans. The love between Flyball and Fred is demonstrated when Flyball races back to Fred during the storm, only to meet Fred looking for him. Good thing that Moofa was kind enough to go with Flyball so she could help them survive.

The art is as enjoyable as it was in the earlier books. This book still calls Flyball a gray cat instead of a gray tabby, but I guess Mr. Todd gave in to Mr. Galdone's illustrations, because the text mentions Flyball's stripes when he meets Moofa.

This is another charming book I have no hesitation in recommending to cat lovers. If the fact that the Mars in this book does not resemble Mars as we have come to know it since this book was first published in 1957 bothers you, think of it as an alternate universe Mars. ( )