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As Halloween gets increasingly popular in Japan, “Trick or treat!” is becoming part of the country’s extensive lexicon of popular foreign phrases. After all, just saying the words instantly legitimizes your reason for cosplaying and gets you some free candy.

Of course, you don’t actually have to know the phrase to celebrate Halloween. This cute kitty, for example, is getting in on all the fun of dressing up and eating treats, even though it can’t say a single word, thanks to its clever owner.

On October 31, Japanese Twitter user @b_ru_ru decided to dress his cat up in a Halloween costume. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a simple witch’s hat, but was still plenty cute and festive. After all, if a trick or treater came to your door dressed like this, wouldn’t you give him some candy?

Being a cat, though, @b_ru_ru’s pet’s vocabulary is limited to “nyao”, and perhaps “meow” if it’s bilingual and knows both the Japanese and English onomatopoeia for the noise cats make. Since it can’t say “Trick or treat,” @b_ru_ru provided it with a different way to ask for a treat: every time it rings a bell, he gives it a morsel of food.

Cat’s aren’t known for their humility, though. After scarfing down the proffered bite-sized snack, it turns to its owner with a serious case of stink eye.

▼ “That’s all there is?”

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Far from satiated, the cat knows exactly what to do…

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…over and over again!

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Online reactions to the impatient feline included:

“I wish my cat would do this.”
“I love the way it licks its hand before it rings the bell the first time.”
“Too cute! If a cat did this to me, I’d keep giving him food.”
“Is this Pavlov’s cat?”

The last point is especially poignant, and also brings up a valid question. In situations like this, is the owner training the pet, or is the pet training the owner?

Source, images: Twitter/@b_ru_ru