LOS ANGELES (AP) – For the first time, a Los Angeles shelter’s Hero Dog award has gone to a cat.
In May 2014, Tara the cat fought off a dog that attacked her 6-year-old owner as he rode his bicycle in the driveway of his Bakersfield home.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles says Tara body-slammed Scrappy, a chow-mix that lived next door.
Tara chased the dog back home. It was later euthanized.
The boy, Jeremy Triantafilo, got eight stitches, and security camera footage made Tara an international celebrity.
Tara was mellow on Friday as the spcaLA gave her its 33rd annual Hero Dog Award in Los Angeles. There was one change: the word “Dog” was scratched out and the word “Cat” etched in.