Sarah got to her feet—all four of them—and started to pad over to give Simone a piece of her mind, or at least a good scratching.

But suddenly, a red dot appeared on the floor right in front of her! Sarah batted at it with a paw, experimentally. Then the red dot was on the back of her paw—and then it jerked away! There it was again, three feet away from her. Then the red dot was nowhere to be found—no, wait, there it was again!

In the back of her mind, Sarah knew exactly what it was—a laser pointer. But it didn’t help; every fiber of her being itched to chase that dot, and she was powerless to resist the urge. She chased the dot back and forth across the room, never catching it, accompanied by Simone’s giggles of amusement.

Finally, Simone put the pointer away—but just as Sarah was about to attack, Simone sprinkled some flakes of something green in front of her face. Sarah sniffed it—and started rolling on the floor and purring, unable to remember quite what she had been thinking a moment before.