Hero Dog Tries to Knock Hero Cat Off the Front Page

It would appear that dogs have had enough. They've had to sit back and watch a cat being raised to hero status after a video of the cat saving a boy from (of all things) a dog attack went super-nova on the web.

"Hey," they said (or barked) to themselves, "We're the heroic animals! We save people all over the world every single day! Some stupid cat actually does something that's not totally self-involved, and the whole world stands up and applauds! We need to get back in the hero game right now!"

Answering the call, I present Taz, the 3-year old Toy Fox Terrier. And, the dogs of the world would like me to point out that Taz didn't just protect 1 person; he saved his entire family from a house fire.

According to a report on Yahoo by ABC News:

The three-year-old Toy Fox Terrier began barking nonstop just after midnight Tuesday when a fire was sparked in the garage of the Cull family's home in Jackson, Wisc.

"He barks a lot at little stuff too but he kept going because obviously he knew something was a little different this time," Zack Cull, 16, told local ABC affiliate WISN.

Cull was inside the home, along with his parents, an aunt and his younger brother, when the fire broke out. The home's smoke detectors did not have batteries installed so it was only the sound of Taz's barking that allowed them to all escape unharmed.

By my count, that's 5, count 'em, 5 people saved, completely trumping the cat, who only chalked up one. Oh, and here's the part that dogs around the world would like to see emphasized:

"You hear about it all the time, a dog saving people's lives or dragging them out of burning buildings," the family's oldest son, Jake, who was not at the home at the time, told WISN. "He couldn't drag anyone out but he let everyone know something was up."

Very true. And, if Taz could talk, I'm sure he'd say to all the cats out there who've been enjoying a new appreciation for their guardian skills, "Go back to ignoring everyone except at food time. Leave the hero stuff to dogs! It's who we are, it's what we do."

Gotta leave you with this awesome hero dog story. Meet Buddy, the German Shepherd: