First sentence: Flyball was the only cat in Luna Port, the first city built on the Moon. He was the only cat on the whole Moon. And he was a famous cat, for with his friend Captain Fred Stone, now Colonel Stone, he had travelled on the first rocket ever to go from Earth to the Moon.

Premise/plot: Flyball (the cat) and Colonel Fred Stone (the human) are the first to travel to Venus in this early chapter book originally published in 1955. In the first book, these two become the first to travel to the Moon. In fact, these two now live on the Moon--at least part time. But now in this second book, they are getting ready for more firsts. The rocket that will send them to Venus is being built on the Moon. And soon these two will be on their way. What will they find?

My thoughts: I was so disappointed in this second book. I found the first book charming enough. I did. This second one was slightly duller than I'd prefer. What they find on Venus is plants, plants, and more plants. Granted some of these plants are highly evolved and communicative. There's one that can read thoughts, for example. But at the end of the day, the two are just essentially looking at a lot of exotic space plants. Flyball also seems less cat-like in this one. Perhaps because the first book started with him being just a normal, super-curious cat that happened to wander into Fred Stone's life and just happened to become a space-travelling kitty. The origin story works for me better than this.

Space Cat Visits Venus is the second book in the Space Cat series. It came out in 1955, or a mere two years before the Space Age began. Unlike real life, where humans visited the moon a few times and then let it alone. As I am writing this review in 2023, it has been 51 years since a human went to our moon. In Space Cat's world, humans have already built the first city on the moon: Luna Port.

Flyball still lives with his friend, Fred Stone, who has been promoted to Colonel. Author Ruthven Todd once again demonstrates how well he knew cats. Flyball patrols Luna Port, allowing the observatory staff to show him their new photos, although he's not interested in star gazing. If they should want him to visit one to inspect it, he's ready. In the meantime, there's the new rocket being built for a trip to Venus. The cat knows it's being built for HIM and Fred, of course. None of his spot checks of packages arriving from earth has given him a single mouse to chase. He hopes to find some on Venus.

This Venus has air breathable by Earth lifeforms, once past the ammonia clouds. I thoroughly enjoyed the description of the land, plant life, and violet sky. As it turns out, a moss-like plant with tiny white flowers called a pyxyx