Hello bloblychampion1! The cat goes in a straight line and has an ACTIVE and a TIRED states, like in the original game, and you must wait behind an obstacle until the cat is tired, indicated by the sad meowing (different meow than the initial and the one when you step in a water spot), then, when cat is tired, go for a run, make some progress (beware of the water spots, they set the cat to it's ACTIVE state immediately) and hide behind another obstacle and repeat, until you eventually get there to the end of the Cat level. Hope that helps you out!
Regarding the extremely dark areas, a picture would be useful! The game is not supposed to be extremely dark, but is a little dark in some places.
