The Cat and the Comet

 Hello All:

The below short story was originally published in 2014. It makes mention of a website, www.fallingfalling.com, which in its day included some eerie sounds. Unfortunately, this is no longer available. You'll have to use your imagination.

 

The Cat and the Comet

It's been said that animals live in a broader spectrum of reality and can sense things that humans cannot. This is what we are beginning to suspect with the recent strange behavior of our family cat. We attribute it to the comet in the sky that seems to be provoking some undesirable side effects on our poor, feline pet.
It was Sunday evening when the family was returning from the backyard after observing the comet in the night sky. We all marveled at how spectacular the view was in binoculars. We could actually see the comet's nucleus and tail! And upon approaching the house, we couldn't help but notice that our family cat, Dunkin, was staring out the glass patio door and meowing to come outside. It was almost as-if it were a dire emergency for the cat to get out of the house. Of course the outdoors at night is no place for our cat. Being the case, we gently pushed him away with our feet and closed the door behind us.
We sat in the darkened family room for about twenty minutes and discussed our observations of the comet, along with some interesting theories that comets carry particles and even bacteria from faraway planets. As we did this, the sound of a helicopter could be heard from a distance as it gradually approached our house.
Suddenly, the cat jumped up on various ledges of furniture in a complete panic so he could see what was out the windows. He was convinced that something was outside. What didn't help matters was the fact that the helicopter circled our house for about a half an hour. While this happened, our cat produced the most-frightening howls that resembled Bruce Lee's trademarked fighting cat noises. "Woooooaaahhhhhh! Woooooooaaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhh!"
The incident was a bit alarming for the family. We truly felt that the house was under some sort of invasion. It was then that my teenage son suggested the most awful possibility. Perhaps the comet carried with it some alien entities that had the ability to telepathically communicate with our cat. They informed our pet that they were soon to arrive. Apparently, the circling helicopter confused the cat and caused him to think that the visitors from the comet were arriving via helicopter. Then again, maybe the helicopter was their spaceship in disguise. At one point I ran into the bedroom closet for my shot gun and returned to the back door. I was so close to running outside and firing at the helicopter.
Eventually the helicopter went away. And just to test if the sound still had the power to terrify our cat; the wife, kids and I loaded helicopter sound effects on our smart phones and began to chase the cat around the house while playing them. At one point we all managed to surround him so that he couldn't escape. All of our phones had helicopter noises coming from them which caused the cat to poise himself in a crouched, fighting position. He looked like a bewildered tiger that was about to attack, but unsure as to what to attack first.
Then my teenage son suggested that maybe the alien entities were using the helicopter sound effects as some sort of radio receiver. As he explained; although the helicopter was gone, the aliens could still communicate with our cat that had fallen under some strange spell of alternate reality framework. It was then that we decided to abort the helicopter experiment and call it a night. We were all tired; and the kids were frightened of going outside where the comet still glowed in the sky.
Throughout the night the cat remained on watch and stared out the windows into the night. He was waiting for something, and fully prepared to do battle if needed. As for me; I was having some very, bizarre dreams. I attribute it to the comet in the sky. The aliens must have been doing physiological tests on us in the house throughout the night.
Come morning I did my usual ritual of brushing teeth, shaving and taking a shower. While this happened, the cat meowed and meowed outside the bathroom door to apparently get in. I believe that the aliens from the comet remained in telepathic communication with the cat, and had informed him that they were soon to abduct me while in the shower. For some reason, I believed that the cat was the only person who could save me. I quickly slipped out of the shower to let him in, and then continued with my business while the cat watched me through the glass door. It was imperative that he watch me and make sure that no alien life forms would suddenly materialize in the shower and abduct me.
As the early morning unfolded, the family groomed and dressed; then sat at the breakfast table while discussing the previous evening's strange events. It was then that my teenage son introduced us to the unusual website, www.fallingfalling.com. It's part of a collection of computer animated artwork. Be sure to have the volume up loud enough so you can hear the peculiar and eerie effect of eternally falling. If listening long enough, you get the feeling that aliens have lowered some sort of portal from the sky and are pulling you up into their spaceship.
We decided at that moment to perform another experiment on the cat. This time we placed him on the center of the kitchen table and then surrounded him with four notebook computers, each logged onto www.fallingfalling.com. As my son suggested, this might have been a good way to trigger an out-of-body experience on the cat which could confuse the aliens of our location.
For about ten minutes the descending noises howled from the computers. All the while, the cat lay on the center of the table while purring.—of all things!
My teenage son suggested a more serious experiment that involved taking the cat on an elevator and riding up and down for a lengthy period of time with various out-of-body-experience-inducing sounds. And so the family called off work and school on that Monday and head out to the city with the cat. Surely the aliens on the comet tracked our activities from the sky. But we felt safe being that it was daytime.
It was necessary to smuggle the cat into the lobby of the 30 story office building in fear that animals were not allowed. Once on the elevator car, the cat was set on the floor while we rode up and down. While this happened, we played various noises on our phones such as helicopter sound effects, and the sounds of 
www.fallingfalling.com. Of course the elevator would stop, occasionally, so passengers could board and ride to their desired floors. We did get some strange looks from people who noticed the cat and noticed that we were playing peculiar sound effects from our phone.
And if we thought that our presence with the cat caused strange looks, we received even stranger looks with my informing them, "We're trying to induce an out-of-body experience for the cat. You see; he's in telepathic communications with aliens on the comet. If we trigger an out-of-body experience, it might trick them into thinking he's at a different location, thereby making it difficult to track us."
After about thirty minutes of this fruitless exercise, my wife began to suffer from motion sickness—elevator vertigo. Apparently the aliens tracked her whereabouts and seized our activity as an opportunity to perform a physiological experiment on her. The activity for the day had to be stopped.
It was a very strange week for us! That comet in the sky caused so much fear and confusion. All we could do was count down the days for it to finally go away.