Sachiko is excited about the Fourth of July. She’s been carrying the flag for days.

Oh, who am I trying to kid?

She doesn’t care about the holiday at all, though at least I’m quite sure she doesn’t remember all the loud noises last year from fireworks, licensed and otherwise.

The conversation actually went something like this:

“Hold this for a minute, will you?”

“No way! Why should I?”

“Because you’ll look cute.”

“I looks kyute anywayz.”

“You’ll look especially cute for the blog readers.”

“So? They not gib me treats. You gib me treat?”

“Well…”

“You gib treat, I wear silly flappy t’ing. It not bird, right?”

“No, it’s not a bird. And no treat. But how about a new toy?”

“Let me see.”

“OK, deal. You gib me pointy ball, I hold silly flappy t’ing.  For one picture.”

She’s got a firm grasp of the essentials of business.

I gave her the flag and got my picture, then gave her the ball.

As I write this, she’s having a grand time, batting the ball around the floor.

She’s also picked it up in her mouth and carried it away from the other cats several times, but she moves too quickly for me to get a shot of that.

As I said, a firm grasp of the essentials.