Photo: Thomas Wells/Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP

Fred Everitt of Tupelo, Miss., 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, July 29, 2022, in Tupelo, Miss.

On July 25, Fred Everitt of Belden, Mississippi, heard his 20-pound calico cat Bandit making “loud guttural meows in the kitchen” sometime between 2:30 and 3 a.m. before she jumped onto his bed and scratched at him, according to theNortheast Mississippi Daily Journal.

Everitt, 68, told theDaily Journalthat he quickly grew alarmed because the cat “had never done that before.”

“I went, ‘What in the world is wrong with you?'” Everitt told theDaily Journal.

When Everitt left his bedroom to figure out what Bandit wanted and turned on the lights in his kitchen, he saw two men outside his home attempting to open a back door — one armed with a handgun and one trying to pry Everitt’s door open with a crowbar, according to theDaily Journal.

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

“You hear of guard dogs,” he added. “This is a guard cat.”

Everitt told theDaily Journalthat he adopted Bandit from the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society in Tulepo, Mississippi, in 2018 after he asked the shelter about available kittens while writing the organization a donation check. In response, the shelter introduced him to Bandit.

Everitt told theDaily Journalthat this recent incident shows how rescue pets can save their owners too.

“I want to let people know that you not only save a life when you adopt a pet or rescue one,” Everitt told theDaily Journal. “The tides could be turned. You never know when you save an animal if they’re going to save you.”

source: people.com