Here’s a great story. I came across this when listening to Stephen Fry’s QI podcasts, Always good fun and interesting. Anyway, Tara is a 7yr old tabby from California who is currently enjoying a year’s worth of free cat food after winning the strangest of awards, the U.S.A National Hero Dog Award. You can view Tara’s award winning performance here when she bulldozed into a neighbour’s dog which was making an unprovoked attack on Tara’s 6yr old family member Jeremy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckDVpihCPq8

Unfortunately Jeremy received 8 stitches in his leg but you can’t help but imagine how much worse it could’ve been had Tara not been there and not had the courage to put her life on the line. Jeremy is autistic and calls Tara his hero now. Jeremy’s Dad says the relationship between their adopted cat Tara and Jeremy is incredible. Whenever Jeremy falls off his bike or has any sort of accident at all she comes running to him, she is so protective of him and we’re so lucky to have such a loyal family member like Tara to watch over Jeremy. The incident with the neighbour’s dog has given us a lot of security over Tara’s ability to watch over Jeremy if ever he gets into trouble around the house.

Cats are often portrayed as being selfish and uncaring about anything other than themselves (certainly sounds familiar to me with our 3 cats!) and it’s really puzzling as to what has motivated Tara to be so protective over young Jeremy. Incredibly brave cat!