{"id":451,"date":"2009-04-20T15:41:30","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T22:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/04\/frank_zoretich_-_the_cat_god\/"},"modified":"2009-04-20T15:41:30","modified_gmt":"2009-04-20T22:41:30","slug":"frank_zoretich_-_the_cat_god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/04\/frank_zoretich_-_the_cat_god.html","title":{"rendered":"Frank Zoretich &#8211; the cat god"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Frank Zoretich was leaving the PI as I arrived. We met in passing but kept up, at first through his newsletters sent under the title, <i>Friends of Frank<\/i>, and later, as his fame grew, in a second edition, <i>Friends of Friends of Frank<\/i>. At the PI, he was known as the king of fluff, a title he wore with pride. Let others battle for the big news story, the trend, the deepish investigative foray. Zoretich is all about what others with an eye on the substantial disdain, such as, stories about cats. <\/p>\n<p>Back in Seattle after stints at several newspapers in the Southwest, Frank contributed <i>My God, the Cat!<\/i> to <a href=\"http:\/\/anewscafe.com\/sections\/bloggers\/\">A News Cafe<\/a>, his first online only venture.<\/p>\n<p>(Image, Julia Salamonik. Click to enlarge)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/-4273.html\" onclick=\"window.open('http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/-4273.html','popup','width=1280,height=960,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/assets_c\/2009\/03\/-thumb-300x225-4273.jpg\" alt=\"catgod\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n<div>Here&#8217;s his lead:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The problem with religion so far is that humans have chosen such<br \/>\nunreasonable gods to worship. Why haven&#8217;t we been smart enough to have<br \/>\ngods who are easy to please, who make demands we can meet without<br \/>\nexcessive sacrifice?<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a problem that vexed me for years &#8211; but I&#8217;ve solved it.<\/p>\n<p>Although I always liked my cat, it wasn&#8217;t until I decided to embrace<br \/>\ntheofelinity that our relationship deepened into something refreshingly<br \/>\nspiritual.<\/p>\n<p>A cat is a wonderful god. I&#8217;m not talking about the big cats like<br \/>\nlions or tigers or the fearsome part-feline beasts worshipped by<br \/>\ncertain ancient civilizations. No, the perfect god is a house cat, a<br \/>\ngod not likely to eat you alive for some minor infraction of its rules,<br \/>\na god grudgingly dependent upon you for its survival, a god, in short,<br \/>\nvery much like my cat.<\/p>\n<p>Scratch (that&#8217;s his name) requires only food on a regular basis, a<br \/>\nplace to sleep that&#8217;s warm and dry, and petting sufficient to energize<br \/>\nhis purr.<\/p>\n<p>Prayer to a cat is entirely optional. Despite the most fervent<br \/>\npleading for divine favor, a cat will not intercede on your behalf. It<br \/>\nwould be a waste of time to ask a cat to improve the weather, increase<br \/>\nthe harvest, rescue you from financial difficulty, or smite your<br \/>\nenemies.<\/p>\n<p>And there is little to dread in the way of punishment for<br \/>\ntransgressions, although Scratch did once afflict me with the<br \/>\npestilence of ringworm. (Continued <a href=\"http:\/\/anewscafe.com\/2009\/04\/16\/my-god-the-cat\/\">here<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frank Zoretich was leaving the PI as I arrived. We met in passing but kept up, at first through his newsletters sent under the title, Friends of Frank, and later, as his fame grew, in a second edition, Friends of Friends of Frank. At the PI, he was known as the king of fluff, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}