By now, most people have seen the famous cat saves boy from dog video , where a fearless feline dubbed the ‘Ninja cat’ launches herself at a vicious dog who’s busy mauling a four-year-old boy like a rag-doll.
When Jeremy Triantafilo is aggressively dragged from his bike by his neighbor’s out of control dog, it’s only the lightning fast reactions of Tara the cat which prevents the situation from becoming every parent’s nightmare.
Like a guardian angel sent from on high, the fiercely loyal cat chases the 8-month-old Labrador-Chow mix off its owner’s property and saves the day.
Albeit the young boy needed a few stitches and might be left with a damaging phobia of dogs, but as the spate of dog attack cases in recent years has shown, it could have been a lot worse.
Apart from the reappraisal of cats in those quarters who hitherto regarded our feline friends as little more than cold-hearted predatory killers incapable of love or loyalty, one of the most unique elements in this case is that the boy’s mother, Erica Triantafilo, wrote on Facebook: “We aren’t upset with our neighbors, we’re just thankful our son wasn’t injured more.”
While such forgiveness may be commendable, after watching footage of the attack, many would find it hard to forgive the owner of any dog who let their hound escape and savage a child in such a way.
The footage clearly shows, this is not the playful attack of a boisterous puppy, it’s a frenzied attack of a dog who smells blood.
Police spokesman Sergeant Joseph Grubb said the dog’s owners told him that the dog did not like children or bicycles. Which begs the question, why was the dog not securely housed in the yard from which it escaped, and if your dog doesn’t like children or bicycles, doesn’t that ring the alarms that your dog could be a problem?
Dogs are amazing creatures. If treated right, they’ll trust without question, love without conditions, and lay down their life to defend their nearest and dearest. If treated badly, or neglected in some manner, they become a big problem and give dogs everywhere a bad reputation.
Behind every dangerous dog, you’ll find a dangerous owner. Why? Because some owners are careless or misinformed. Neglectful owners tend to treat their dogs like accessories or objects, as weapons of fear and dominance, and remain steadfastly indifferent to their every need.
Dogs are complex creatures, who need the proper training, guidance, discipline, routine, and above all love if they’re to live in harmony with their human counterparts.
If your dog doesn’t like children or bicycles, then either ensure it encounters neither, or even better, spend a little bit of time to find out why and fix the problem before it becomes an issue. It’s not rocket science.
When a cat saves a boy from dog, it makes headline news, but when dogs everywhere are saved from irresponsible owners, that would be world changing.