How could they NOT SEE THE CAT? Good question, but people will see what they WANT to see, nothing more, nothing less. Consider for a moment, this passage from the book of Numbers.
Numbers 14:11-24 WEB (R)
(11) Yahweh said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?
(12) I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
(13) Moses said to Yahweh, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them;
(14) and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
(15) Now if you shall kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,
(16) Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.
(17) Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,
(18) Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.
(19) Pardon, Please, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
(20) Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to your word:
(21) but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh;
(22) because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;
(23) surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it:
(24) but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.
Israel had seen all of the mighty works of God and yet had not believed. I can understand Egypt not understanding, because after all, their gods were THEIR gods; But Israel? Perhaps, the reason they could not perceive the wonder of God was that they really did believe in the Egyptian gods. It would have been easy for them to just "go along" with the accepted deities of their culture and accept as reality false gods. It is always easier to go along with the status quo rather than truly seek for truth. Whatever the reason, almost all of Israel could not believe, even though they were in the midst of greatness and had seen God's power work miracles. Just as the people in the picture could not see the cat flying by because they were absorbed in their own interests, so, the people who were supposed to enter the promised land could not see the greatness of the God of heaven right in front of their eyes. Be careful; do not allow our society to dictate our beliefs, but rather, seek to do the will of HIM who raises up rulers and destroys nations!