Why are objects made in this task?

Yes we don't need any object to reference a static method from a static context. But that doesn't mean we can't make one if we like. However, in this very code, we want to increase the value of the count variable to 2 simple by creating 2 objects of the Cat class and using those objects call and increment the count variable's value. Even without the objects, we could do this: Cat.count++; Cat.count++; And still have our output as 2. So the reason why they made those objects is prolly for simplicity/explanation sake. Not necessarily because we need them. Hope this helps.

It looks like that Cat class is only static so it can be accessed by the static method main(). If it was in its own file, then it wouldn't be static, but they are just making it easier for you.