Cat got their tongues

The shorter guy whispered harshly. "Don't touch that."

"Why?"

The taller one, who the other guy kept calling 'sting' for whatever
reason, replaced the black velvet form on the floor. A small 'mew'
escaped its lips.

"Cats are evil", shorter said.

"But he's so...he's so warm" sting said. "And fuzzy." He looked puzzled
and even slightly disappointed at having to keep the cat back. He
sighed and continued stuffing the huge gunny sack with other
'important' things like the mantelpiece clock and littered jewellery
like a bracelet and ear rings. The owner of these was surely not
bothered about theft, it was obvious.

The black furry animal blinked at sting once. He smiled in the semi
darkness as the two glowing eyes met his.

"Nick," Sting said. "What if these come back sooner than we
know?"

Nick waved him away. "No they won't. Trust me? Now hurry up and stop
gazing at that beast. We've a long night ahead of us. Remember we've to
rob at least 5 more houses to keep us going this month."

Sting shrugged and continued stealing. Then something caught his eyes.
"hey."

"What?" Nick almost jumped. "Don't you ever scare me like that. What is
it?"

Sting pointed to the corner of the room, on the other side of the huge
bed.

"Yeah, it's a computer. So?"

"Aren't we gonna take that?"

Nick looked at it for a minute. It wasn't a very good looking one he
decided. Moreover, he had a bigger, meaner machine back in their
dump.

"Nah." He shrugged. "It's no good. And nobody's gonna buy it anyway.
That's the funny thing about these things. They're not valued for their
appearance. or even price. The juice is in the software, memory and
such. And this one's a goner" He chuckled.

"You think so?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, you're the boss."

They were almost done. A half hour later they were gone like they'd
never come in here. Outside on the dark street, you could hear a 'mew'
every now and then from the house.

****

The local newspaper carried a picture of two local thieves a couple of
days later. Nick and Sting. The report said the two were identified by
a video of theirs, captured in a webcam.

****

Salma stroked her fingers gently over the fur as she gazed at the blue
light in her monitor. The house slept. She'd logged on as usual to
write her online journal and check emails. But the events over the past
few days had baffled her. She still didn't have an explanation. The
police had had no trouble nabbing the two thieves who'd burgled their
house. Her webcam was on when they were going about their job.

"But...I thought I'd shut it off," She'd stammered when the cops had
come sniffing.

"But evidently it wasn't, ma'am", the bushy moustached officer had
beamed. You must've been video mailing someone and left in a hurry.
Maybe you could ask your cat, he was there." He laughed heartily, his
belly heaving. She frowned.

"Well, thanks to you, they're ours now."

Salma had placed an icon of the webcam on her desktop and all she had
to do was click on it. The thing came on. Yeah, she video chatted with
her friends now and then, but...she was puzzled. She was dead sure
she'd switched off the computer the other evening before heading off
for her cousin's wedding. She never forgot to do that. Never. If Devil
could speak, he'd say the same thing. He was always watching her when
she sat in front of the computer.

She nuzzled her face on Devil's (Oh yeah, that's her cat's name)
"What do you say, Devil? Did *you* switch my cam on?" She said, and
laughed at her own silliness. She looked at Devil. He blinked and
mewed. She could swear she saw him smile, as he leaped off her lap and
settled on the bed, looking at her from there. She turned to her
monitor and opened her mailbox.