25 Space Cats

Part of Science Fiction is engaging our sense of wonder. What if something familiar was just a little bit different? Alien wildlife is an engaging way to engage our sense of wonder. Making new alien wildlife is difficult and simple at the same time. Changing its skin covering, eye count, mouth structure, and limbs are easy, but when you're on the spot or have done it a few times recently it can be tricky. 

Here, I present a list of Cat aliens. They're numbered for easy reference, as well as for use with random generators. Each space cat is different, and while they might specialize for an ecology or have additional capabilities, they should all be recognizable as "cats". They do tend towards wild versions of the creatures: its conceptually easier to convert a wild animal into a domestic one than vice versa. I should give credit to Mailanka for inspiring this with his post about Space Cats. I hope you find enjoyment and inspiration in this list!

1. A sleek Cat-like creature slung low to the ground with extra large paws, coarse grey fur, and a hairless face is digging at some other creature's borrow
2. A scaley small cat-like predator with bone scutes running up its back and a frilled ears that completely fold up is hissing in a threat display
3. A short-furred cat alien with no ears and spikes running down its spine is hiding in knee-high foliage
4. A presumably vicious but small predator whose features are hidden behind poofs of tawny yellow hair, creeping through the tall dead grass
5. A six-legged long feline creature with grey hide and no tail is crouching in the brush
6. An upright scaly green predator with a long neck and tail and four eyes is carefully leaping from one branch to another
7. Its dark red fur stands up as the 5 kilo creature opens its sharp beak to hiss at you and raises a front foot with large talons.
8. A small crouching furry cat-like creature flings itself from the branch into the air, spreading the winged membranes attached to its arms and letting its tall thin tail act as a rudder. 
9. A tall feline creature with wet glistening blueish-green skin, a bobbed tail, and large bulbous eyes darts its clawed hand into the water
10. A powerfully built feline creature slinks about in its dark chitinous carapace, unblinking eyes gazing forward, joints moving seamlessly
11. A cat-like predator with a long hairless prehensile tail and short stiff white bristles over its black skin strides along a branch with its unsheathed claws
12. A low-slung cat-like striped furry predator with a long neck, six legs, and flat tail slips out of the jungle into the water.
13. A 5 kilo "Bug" leaps out of the brush with feline grace, pinning its prey to the ground with a claw on its sturdy leg before scooping it up in a pair of short mandibles and throwing it in the air and propelling its shiny maroon body into the air to catch its hapless victim. 
14. A smoothly feathered dark brown space cat raises a massive feathered crest on its back to appear twice as large, and opens its triple mouth wide in a threat display, lower mandibles open almost strait from left to right. 
15. A small feline beast with slimy black skin and bright red spots on its back shows no fear of the larger predator, instead lowering its profile and licking its lips in its search for prey
16. After wiggling the rear of its abdomen, an eight-legged ball of fluff leaps from its hiding place, its legs and mandibles spread wide to catch its much smaller prey.
17. The roughly scaled predator pounces in the shallow stream, leading with its graceful paws and following with a toothy mouth. It rises dripping from the water with its wriggling prey in its mouth, and takes high steps over to the bank. 
18. The cat-sized slimy alien lounges on the stream bank with its latest capture nestled in its long fingers, prying the its victim's shell open with its four mouth-tentacles so that its radula can reach the tender flesh underneath.
19. The feline creature open its evenly toothed mouth and fluffs up its feathers, doubling its apparent volume and showing its even rows of knife-like teeth.
20. The cat-like critter flattens its long cheek and back crests and closes its four eyes as it slides under a branch. 
21. The feline alien stretches out its twelve-inch tongue, long elbow hackles and back crest down, ready to dash away at any moment. 
22. The loose and wrinkled hide of the cat-like alien moves as the skeleton under them shifts and the creature tastes the air with its forked tongue.
23. The Feline alien lifts its short trunk to better smell something on the wind, its sparse fur standing on end.
24. A long-legged Cat Alien moves its enormous ears forward, framing its naked face against the thick glossy fur covering the rest of its body.
25. The scales of the feline creature shift color to blend in with the alien foliage, renewing its camouflage.