Cats held a special status in Klee's life, and so the watercolor "The Mountain of the Sacred Cat" cannot simply be categorized among his nature paintings. Cats were companions, but also almost otherworldly beings, whom Klee observed, loved, and pampered with devotion. Numerous cats, whose names have been recorded, populated Klee's household: Mietz and Nuggeli, who, along with their offspring, inhabited their homeland on the Bernese Obstberg; the clever Fritzi from his Weimar Bauhaus period; and a Persian cat who accompanied Klee during the last decade of his life. When asked what he would like to be in a second life, he replied: "A cat—with me." Capturing typical animal poses and movements—as Franz Marc did—was not his artistic forte. Even with cats, Klee focused on symbolically encoded forms of representation, using irony and self-irony to make cat worship his subject. The cat is here elevated to a cult image, dominating the scene with hieratic severity and aloofness. Its monumental presence relegates the human world to a marginal phenomenon; its otherworldly radiance, as if emanating from within, overwhelms the opaque darkness of its surroundings. Its measured descent from the cult site contrasts sharply with the agitation of the earthly commoners, and Klee may even see himself represented in one of the two figurines; it is certainly a parody of his own idolatrous love of cats.