Fat cat stops burglary attempt in US

Nine-kilogram calico Bandit may have saved owner's life

Fred Everitt is all smiles after his cat, Bandit, alerted him in the middle of the night that two men were trying to break into the back door of his home. AP

You've heard of a guard dog — but what about a guard cat?

Fred Everitt, 68, of Belden in the US state of Mississippi says his nine-kilogram calico cat Bandit, whom he adopted from the local humane society four years ago, not only alerted him to a burglary but also may have saved his life.

On July 25, Mr Everitt was startled awake at about 2.30am by Bandit meowing in the kitchen. She then raced into the bedroom and began pulling the duvet off him and clawing at his arms, AP reported.

Confused by the hefty feline's unusual behaviour, Mr Everitt followed her out of the room.

“She had never done that before,” Mr Everitt told The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. “I went, ‘What in the world is wrong with you?’”

He followed Bandit to the back door, where he found two men — one armed and another wielding a crowbar — standing outside.

Mr Everitt quickly left the room to retrieve his handgun, but by the time he returned, the men had already fled.

He did not end up calling the police. Bandit had apparently prevented what could have been a purr-fect crime.

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“It did not turn into a confrontational situation, thank goodness,” Mr told The Journal. “But I think it’s only because of the cat.”

With her prevention of the burglary, Bandit joins other pets who have bravely defended their homes and owners against intruders. In 2018, a pig helped scare off burglars trying to enter a home in the state of Indiana. And in Wales in 2020, a parrot's alarmed squawking alerted its owners to the presence of a serial thief.

But not all pets are such law-abiding citizens: a parrot in the Netherlands was “arrested” in 2019 after being found in a suspicious situation — on the shoulder of a suspected shoplifter.