"Why do you want him to mew?" The wife asks in response, with a look of exasperation, before rapping my head yet again. Having understood the other party's objective, the resolution is simple enough. All I have to do is mew, and the master will be happy. The master's a dolt, as this episode demonstrates, and that makes things difficult. If it's a mew he's after, he could have just said so. No need for the wife to go to lengths, two times then three times, and no need to subject yours truly to multiple provocations. Unless the desired outcome is a rap on the cat's head, ordering another to rap the cat on the head is misguided. The directed party can rap at will, but the mew is mine to yield. If the whole point is to elicit a mew, which is mine to yield or withhold at my own discretion, then scheming to do so through a roundabout rap on the head is the height of presumption. It's utter disregard for individuality and freedom of choice. It's trifling with this cat. From a fellow like Kaneda, whom the master detests with a passion, such would be par for the course. From the master, however, who proudly cavorts with the naked masses, it's most disappointing. The master, in fact, is not so petty. His directions were not crafted from any abundance of wiliness. They were hatched rather, as I see it, from lack of insight. When one eats a meal, one's belly swells. When one is cut, one bleeds. When one is killed, one dies. In like manner, rap a cat's head, and it mews. Or so it seems the master has rashly concluded. Sad to say, though, his thinking is flawed. Applying the same logic, to fall into a river means death by drowning. To eat tempura means a loose stool. To receive one's pay means one does one's duties. And to read books means enlightenment. Assignment of such foregone consequences is not without hazard. In particular, the master's idea, that a rap on the cat's head means a mew, does not sit well with yours truly. I was born a cat, not a clock. To be viewed in the same vein as the hourly bell at Mejiro is a slight to my felinity. Having repudiated the master's logic in my mind, thoroughly and to my own satisfaction, I acquiesce and yield his sought-after mew.