Zatara (Tara for short), is a female

tabby A tabby cat, or simply tabby, is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a coat pattern distinguished by an M-shaped marking on its forehead, stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, around its legs and tail, and characteris ...

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

who rose to international fame in May 2014 when she stopped a dog attack against her owners' four-year-old child in

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of th ...

, United States. When a neighbor's dog attacked the son, the cat leapt at the dog causing it to stop biting and run away. The moment was recorded on household surveillance. After the footage was uploaded on

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, it received more than 16.8 million views in the first 48 hours.

Family pet

The cat joined the Triantafilo family in 2008 after it followed parents, Roger and Erica Triantafilo, home. They named her Tara because it was the pet form of 'Zatara'; the name smugglers gave to

Edmond Dantès Edmond Dantès () is a title character, Byronic hero and the protagonist of Alexandre Dumas's 1844 adventure novel ''The Count of Monte Cristo''. Within the story's narrative, Dantès is an intelligent, honest and loving man who turns bitter and ...

in ''

The Count of Monte Cristo ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Alexandre Dumas. It was serialised from 1844 to 1846, and published in book form in 1846. It is one of his most popular works, along with ''The Three Musketeers'' (184 ...

''. The smugglers said it meant driftwood.

Dog attack

On May 13, 2014, Jeremy Triantafilo, a four-year-old boy, was riding his bicycle in his family's driveway in Bakersfield, California when Scrappy, a neighbor's eight-month-old

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

- Chow mix, came from behind and bit his leg. As the dog began dragging Jeremy down his driveway, Tara, who the family states was very attached to Jeremy, tackled the dog and chased him away before returning to Jeremy's side to check on him. Jeremy needed ten stitches in his left calf following the attack. He quickly recovered and was thankful for Tara's actions calling her "my hero".

Awards and commendations

A few days later, minor league baseball team Bakersfield Blaze invited the cat, assisted by Jeremy's family, to throw the first pitch at a Bakersfield

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

game in Sam Lynn Ballpark as a recognition for her deed. In the same spirit, Cat Fanciers' Association announced Tara as the recipient of its first-ever Cat Hero Award. * On June 3, 2014, the Bakersfield Board of Supervisors proclaimed June 3 Tara the Hero Cat Day. * On August 15, 2014, Tara was awarded the Special Award For Cat Achievement by the Cat Vid Festival. * On September 26, 2014, Tara was awarded the Blue Tiger Award; an award only awarded to military service dogs. * Tara became the first non-human to be named the grand marshal for Bakersfield's Christmas parade in 2014. * On June 19, 2015, Tara was awarded with the Los Angeles SPCA's "Hero Dog" award, for which she also won a year's supply of cat food. * On New Year's Day, 2018, Tara and her family rode in the Rose Parade on the Lucy Pet Foundation Paws for Life float honoring heroic animals.

Aftermath

The eight-month-old Labrador-Chow mix Scrappy was surrendered by its owners to the City of Bakersfield Animal Care Center on May 13. It then began a mandatory ten-day quarantine period to determine whether the animal had

rabies Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") because its victims panic when offered liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abn ...

. After the video of Tara went viral, websites and online petitions called for the dog not to be put down. Animal Care Center director Julie Johnson said they were also flooded with phone calls asking for the dog to be saved. However based on the observations in the kennel during the quarantine period, the dog remained classified as "vicious" and "dangerous"; so adoption requests were denied. Following the mandatory 10-day quarantine period, Scrappy "was humanely euthanized over the weekend" of May 24, 2014.

References

External links