The supreme being is not Buddha nor is it Jehovah. Rather, it is The Cat who reigns over us all. Not that The Cat has any truck with religion, They are not interested in corralling human beings and making us worship some kind of amorphous, illusory thing. The Cat simply hovers above us, observing the mass of living things as loftily as any deity.

The Cat has long dismissed religion as merely an invention of fragile humankind, a spiritual crutch without which civilization could not continue. The Cat sauntered down from Their altar and climbed up a tree, which might not be as high as an altar, but cradled in its branches, The Cat lives with such ease, in sheer delight. As for the busy insects and humans scurrying around beneath, The Cat is content to simply gaze down upon them.

With Their gleaming eyes, as brilliant as the sun, The Cat watches the bustle below. Ordinary folk go about their day with absolutely no awareness of the god watching them from the treetops. These regular people walk by, gossiping about this or that, digging their noses, spitting on the ground, doing all kinds of inconsequential things, and The Cat sees all. Yet They never express their judgment nor do They give commands—in fact, They’re happy to let everyone forget about Their existence entirely. The Cat is so carefree and at ease They have even shrugged off and tossed away the cross borne by the human god for so long.

At one point, The Cat leaped down from the tree and fractured into countless kitties. Some of them climbed other trees or onto rooftops, becoming deities in their own right. Two clambered onto the top of my wardrobe and are now my Cat and Kitten.

My kitties love a high vantage point from which they can see everything, no corner escaping their gaze. Their eyes are four cameras, sometimes pointing in different directions, sometimes in the same one, their 3-D surveillance covering the entire flat—what we might call a god’s-eye view. Everything in our home, including each item of furniture, including Husband and me, is utterly visible to the cats. It seems our kitties are our gods, and I silently pray for their continued protection.