"Guard Cat" Prevents a Robbery and Saves Owner's Life

You've heard of guard dogs? Meet perhaps the world's first guard cat. Bandit—a 20-pound calico who lives with her owner in Belden, Mississippi—foiled an attempted robbery in the early morning hours of July 25. According to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Fred Everitt heard Bandit making "loud guttural meows" between 2:30 and 3 am before she jumped onto his bed, started pulling the comforter off of him, and clawing at his arms. Everitt became alarmed because the cat "had never done that before."

"I went, 'What in the world is wrong with you?'" he told the paper.

When Everitt left his bedroom and turned on the lights in his kitchen, he saw two men outside his house trying to open a back door. One held a handgun; the other was trying to open the door with a crowbar.

Between Everitt appearing in the kitchen—and him returning to the bedroom to retrieve a 9mm handgun—the would-be robbers fled. "It did not turn into a confrontational situation, thank goodness," said Everitt. "But I think it's only because of the cat."

He added: "You hear of guard dogs," he added. "This is a guard cat."

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Everitt adopted Bandit from the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society in Tulepo, Mississippi, four years ago. He has been a longtime supporter of the society and was dropping off a donation check when he asked to see what kittens were available for adoption. Bandit came home with him that day. "I want to let people know that you not only save a life when you adopt a pet or rescue one," Everitt told the Daily Journal. "The tides could be turned. You never know when you save an animal if they're going to save you."

It's rare for cats to come to the rescue, given their reputations for being aloof, but it's not unheard of. "Thanks to one frantic feline, an 83-year-old woman in Cornwall, England, who had fallen down a ravine was found and rescued. Her pet, a black cat named Piran, had meowed relentlessly at the point where she'd fallen, leading a neighbor, who had been helping search crews, right to her," reported NPR last year. "Without the cat waiting at the gate to that field, it could have been hours later that I or anyone else would have checked there," the neighbor, Tamar Longmuir, told Sky News. Read on to hear about more hero cats.

"Simon, a black and white ship's cat, was awarded the Dickin Medal – the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross – for helping to save the lives of Royal Navy officers during the Chinese civil war in 1949. He protected food stores from an infestation of rats on board the HMS Amethyst during a siege," reports the BBC. "The brave chap suffered severe shrapnel wounds and was given a hero's welcome when his ship returned to dock in Plymouth."

"A mother cat has been taken into care after she repeatedly rushed into a burning barn to try and save her kittens," reports Newsweek. "The cat, which has been hailed as a hero, sustained multiple burns and inhaled smoke. She managed to save one of her kittens from the blaze." "This beautiful mama is a hero," wrote the Furget Me Not Animal Rescue group on Facebook. "Mommy is semi-feral, so rescue mommy sure has her work cut out for her, but kitties like this are exactly why we do the work we do." If you think you're ready to adopt a cat, visit the ASPCA.