A young boy found himself being attacked by a dog in his driveway this week when a cat came to the rescue. The incident occurred in Southwest Bakersfield and the entire ordeal was captured on video, according to ABC 23.
The boy, 4-year-old Jeremy, was playing with his bicycle while returning from school. He decided that he wanted to fly a kite. Jeremy suffers from a mild case of autism. The dog belongs to a neighbor and is an 8-month-old mix of labrador and chow.
The dog approached the boy from behind and bit Jeremy’s leg. The boy’s cat, Tara, ran to the scene and chased away the dog.
“Tara is my hero,” Jeremy said.
The boy’s mother, Erica Triantafilo, was watering a tree when she heard him scream out in pain.
“I didn’t really even realize what had happened until after when my husband showed me the surveillance video,” Erika said.
Jeremy required some stitches due to the attack, but he is doing fine.
“I’ve never seen a cat do that,” said Roger Triantafilo, Jeremy’s father. “Especially ours. It just shows how much she really has a family-oriented mind set.”
Tara joined the family in 2008 and now has a Facebook page in her honor for saving Jeremy. The dog is under voluntary observation at the Bakersfield Animal Care Center. The dog will be under quarantine for 10 days prior to being euthanized. The dog escaped the neighbor’s fenced property when the neighbor was pulling a vehicle out of the gated driveway.