By Elisa Black-Taylor
A West Sussex (UK) cat has been nominated for a hero award after scaring away a burglar from his home.
To look at Leo, a 3-year old Bengal, he doesn’t appear at first sight to be that frightening. Leo has had a lot of territorial training where he scares off neighborhood cats who try to enter his yard.
Leo put that training to good use back in December 2011 when a would be burglar chiseled his way in through a downstairs back window and mistakenly opened the door leading into the room where Leo got his nightly beauty sleep. Seeing the room was empty, the burglar started up the stairs where Leo’s owners, Sue and John Higgins’ Crawley, were in bed.
It was at this time Leo decided he needed to defend his family. Leo raced through his cat door and followed the burglar up the stairs. He let out what his Sue described as a “deep guttural meow.” The burglar ran off without taking a thing.
Leo was nominated as a finalist in the Hero Cat category in the Cats Protection UK 2012 National Cat Awards sponsored by Verdo Cat Litter. Although a cat named Charley officially won the hero category, in Sue and John’s eyes, Leo is their hero.
Here’s a video where his parents tell of Leo’s heroism.
Leo isn’t the only cat to defend his home. Another famous American cat named Homer(Homer’s Odyssey), owned by Gwen Cooper, has a story here. Homer is blind and literally attacked a burglar.
Whoever said cats can’t offer any defense during a home invasion apparently isn’t well versed on the love between a cat and its human companion. Cats may defend differently than dogs, but they do tend to know when their owners need a helping hand. Or claw….claws are very necessary…
Is no one going to comment on the husband in the video? I don’t think his wife lets him talk much. Or ever.
People don’t need guard dogs. Bengal cats are fine. Not really because 4th generation Bengal cats are just like other domestic cats in terms of aggression etc.. Although there is about 12% wild cat in the fourth generation Bengal cat. I assume the cat is about fourth generation.
It seems the burglar didn’t like cats. Perhaps he was unsure about cats and the Bengal cat does look half wild. It is a cat breed that is meant to look a bit wild. And they do have nice wild cat sounding voices sometimes.
I think it is about small deterrents. Most burglars are opportunistic burglars. Their actions are not planned ahead. So even small obstacles can deter as the reward is unknown. They have to weigh up possible small reward against problems encountered.
I suppose too that the burglar thought that the cat would wake up the occupiers.
Maybe that deep gutteral sound came off as a human sound to the nervous burglar. Of all the sounds he could make he certainly happened to make the best one he could have. Well, that’s my guess on the matter anyway.
Hi Rudolph. Thank you for spotting the error. I have amended it to 2011 pending verification. I agree with what you say completely.
Hello Elisa, a slight factual correction. You have mentioned the date as December-2012 while we are still in September-2012.I am a student of History and a blogger , always very particular when “FACTS” are quoted.”DATES” are very important in biographies or historical essays, or books.”SPELLING MISTAKES” are tolerated and can be corrected without damaging the entire biography or history of a era, person or animal but not “CHRONOLOGICAL DATES”. I presume Mr Michael.Broad would agree with me..