How Bandit the Very Alert Cat Saved Her Owner From Would-be Burglars

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Retired oral surgeon Fred Everitt was asleep in his Mississippi home early Monday morning when his calico cat, Bandit, started letting out deep meows.

It wasn't an animal she'd seen; it was two people trying to break into Everitt's Belden home. She then went into "guard cat" mode, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. 

The newspaper reports that the cat began her meowing between 2:30 and 3 a.m. Everitt assumed Bandit, who likes to patrol the house at night, had seen another cat. She absolved him of that notion when she ran into his bedroom, tried to pull his comforter off, and clawed at his arms.

"She had never done that before," Everitt told the Daily Journal. "I went, 'What in the world is wrong with you?'"

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Bandit's insistence got him out of bed, and he threw on his robe and entered the kitchen. That's when he saw the two figures—one with a crowbar and one with a handgun—trying to enter his back door.

By the time Everitt, 68, returned from retrieving his own handgun, the would-be intruders were gone, he told the newspaper.

"It did not turn into a confrontational situation, thank goodness," Everitt told the paper, crediting his 20-pound cat with potentially saving his life. "But I think it's only because of the cat."

Everitt adopted Bandit from the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society four years ago. He was there to make a monetary donation when he asked to see the kittens the shelter had. After seeing Bandit, he decided to adopt her.

"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."