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Editor's note: The video shows a dog biting a little boy and the resulting wounds. Some viewers may find the video disturbing. BAKERSFIELD, California — Stories of dogs coming to the rescue are a dime a dozen. There are countless true stories, and maybe even more fictional stories, of hero dogs rescuing Timmy from the well, so to speak.
It’s not often you hear about a cat saving the day. But 4-year-old Jeremy’s cat, Tara, was a true hero on Tuesday when she stopped a dog attack, and it was caught on surveillance tape.
According to KERO in Bakersfield, Erica Triantafilo, Jeremy’s mother, was watering a tree in the front yard as Jeremy played on his bike next to a car in the driveway.
The surveillance footage shows two angles: Jeremy on one side of the car, and the neighbor’s 8-month-old Labrador chow mix on the other. When the dog notices Jeremy, he walks around the car and quickly and inexplicably bites Jeremy on the leg, pulling him off his bike.
Like a shot, Tara tears onto the scene, ramming head first into the dog. When the dog stops at the end of the driveway, Tara takes chase again until the dog is well on his way.
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A baby elephant gets into trouble while crossing a swiftly moving river, but the herd's matriarch comes to the rescue.She then skids to a stop, turns around and heads back to Jeremy, presumably to continue to stand guard over her ward. It’s an incredible ending to an attack that could have been much worse.
The owner of the dog said the dog got out of her gated yard when she was pulling her car out of the driveway, according to KERO. She was the one to call 9-1-1 to report the attack.
Triantafilo said she didn’t see what happened, but ran to Jeremy when she heard him scream. It wasn’t until she saw the security footage that she saw both the attack and Tara’s rescue.
Jeremy’s injuries required several stitches, but Triantafilo said he’s doing fine.
The dog will be under "voluntary observation" for 10 days then euthanized, police told KERO. You can hear the 9-1-1 call and see an interview with the family on KERO’s website.
