At eight minutes before noon last Friday, everything seemed quiet in Kaaawa. Then one of my security cameras detected motion in the room and started snapping (and uploading) photos. The cats knew something was wrong even before the camera caught sight of the burglar.

In this photo, you can see Duke (at the very bottom left) and Romeo (in front of the kitchen counter, center) in motion to the left. It tells me they were running from some noise over to the right. Just a few seconds later, the burglar made his first appearance in one of the photos as he stopped and looked over what was on the counter.

When the burglar then disappeared down the hall, Toby and a couple of other cats escaped and came racing back into the living room.

Our cats generally do not like strangers in the house. They usually run and hide, and only venture out when the coast is clear again. The burglar must have really set them off.

Thanks to Gene Park for noting the cats brief appearance in a tweet on Wednesday. I’m sure the cats appreciated it.

I love @ilind’s retelling of his burglary odyssey. Especially since his cats play a cameo role http://bit.ly/1gA9Ixu

Thanks, Gene.

Did I mention that you can click on the picture to see a larger version of the photo?

And when the burglar made his exit, he left the sliding door to our deck open. The cats, who are now normally kept inside, got their freedom.

The burglar departed a few minutes after noon. We arrived home at 5 p.m. In that interval, Romeo managed to track down Black Cat and face off with him again. I don’t know how Black Cat fared, but Romeo ended up with some serious scratches on his left ear. And he wonders why I don’t let him spend time outside anymore.

— See the rest of this week’s Friday Felines from Kaaawa!