Tara, the Bakersfield, California cat who flew to the rescue when an attacking dog got hold of her family’s 4 year old son Jeremey’s leg, appeared with (a sleeping) Jeremy and his parents, Erica and Roger Triantafilo, on a Today Show segment this morning.
“It’s honestly just a blur,” Erica Triantafilo said of her memory of the attack on her son. “I just remember hearing him and the next thing I know, I see my cat flying out of nowhere, onto this dog, and just remember trying to get my son and get the dog away and back in its yard, away from both of us that it was trying to attack.”
The family adopted Tara, who’d been a stray, 6 years ago, and say she is a generally mild mannered and peaceable cat.
“Every once in a while she puts our dog back into her place, but for the most part, she’s just the most mellow cat you’ve ever met,” Erica Triantafilo said.
Tara’s heroism went viral after Roger found footage from a surveillance camera and uploaded a video to YouTube.
“I was like, ‘Well, you know, I’m going to check the tape and see if we got anything, and see if it even caught what happened,’” he said. “And sure enough, it was pretty amazing to see just a cat take on a dog and so selflessly just put herself out there and not worry about if she was going to get bit or injured herself.
“I think that dog did not know what hit him.”
If you missed the segment, or want to see it again, watch the video below.
Hero cat’s family tells story behind boy’s rescue: ‘Dog did not even know what hit him’:
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