True, but it also highlights the danger of allowing small children to play on pavements so close to roads.
I totally agree. According to Sky News this morning the litlle boy was only 4 years old. I wonder what sort of mother would allow her child to play on the pavement in a fairly busy residential area. When my sons were that age they had to play in the garden and even then I'd check to see what they were up to every ten minutes of so as I didn't trust either of them not to get up to mischief when my back was turned! The cat though did a wonderful job of chasing away the dog .... so lucky she was around! Cats are wonderful creatures! When Chloe was a puppy and used to run away, if Sashicat was around she would come with me to search for my naughty puppy. Sashi always seemed to know where she was and when she found Chloe she'd find somewhere to sit just out of reach which used to distract Chloe, who would run up to the cat and start to bark at her, which gave me the time to swoop and snatch Chloe up in my arms ... a very clever cat!
To be fair it's quite difficult to ride a bike in the garden and my kids definitely rode theirs on the pavement out the front when they were small. I'd be out there with them keeping a watchful eye and that mum was probably outside but out of shot. It's such a fine line between giving them exercise and a modicum of freedom and being accused of being neglectful. Too many kids these days are kept inside out of harms way because parents won't put themselves out.
That dog meant business what a clever cat! According to that report it was a neighbour's guard dog, the cat apparently adopted the couple 5 years ago. The dog has been handed in and will be monitored for couple of weeks before deciding what to do with it. http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/cat-rescue-family-house-cat-tara-saved-year-23719072 Though a quiet road our son used to play with his bike out front as garden wasn't suitable but we always had an eye on him.
When we were kids we were always out playing on the streets, and some kids did get bitten by dogs (luckily, not me!) - however not as bad as that, that dog meant business. To be fair the child's mother must have been close as she was out fairly quickly. What I do wonder though, is whether the dog was getting his own back - could the child have been nasty to him in the past?
My children also played outside, but not when they were only four years old, and not on tricycles or bicycles near busy roads.
To be honest Malka, you could hardly say that was a busy road, I cant see one car moving , it looks like a quiet estate to me. Besides the child was on his own drive with his mother close by, children have to be allowed to play outside sometimes.... the dog owner is at fault here, no one else .
The dog shouldn't have been roaming free and according to the owners had only just escaped from their garden, except of course the owners were not in hot pursuit, they were nowhere to be seen.
I know that the dog owner is the one at fault, but the child was initially on the pavement itself right next to the road,before he moved onto the drive. http://news.sky.com/story/1261690/hero-cat-saves-boy-from-savage-dog-attack And quiet estate or not, the fact that there were cars in the driveways does means that cars do go past. Had the dog knocked him over while he was on the edge of the pavement, and had a car been going past at the time, the outcome could have been completely different. And that is what gave me reason for concern.
We can say. ..if this or that happened till the cows come home, kids play out they should be allowed to play the child was under supervision, and the roads were quiet, so considering the danger came from something not predicted, I think we can accept that we can't wrap them up in cotton wool all the time, they need to play in fresh air, they can't ride their bikes in the garden, When mine were young we used to take them up and down the road on their bikes, of cause we kept them under supervision, but if we worried about every eventuality that might happen kids would never leave their house.
I saw this video on fb, after looking at video it seems there was the boy's mother outside with him, as soon as the dog attacked her son you can just see her running (can see her shadow through car windows) but the punky cat got there first.
I did not wrap my children up in cotton wool but as we lived in an 8th floor flat, and only moved to a house with gardens when they were aged 5 and 3 they could not play outside unless I was with them. Once we moved and knew the area, they played outside as long as it was within a certain area. However, from the age of 8 my daughter walked her 6 year-old brother to and from school every day without me - being the only mother who let her children do so.
I at to walk 5 miles to school with my brothers & sister when I was 4 years old - school runs was totally unheard off way back in the 60's
My parents never had a car - actually I think only one person in the street had one when we were young, and we used to walk across the fields to school. But that was in the 40s and my children went to Primary School in the 70s.
Just to get back to the original video - I found it really shocking viewing. The dog stalked the child as though he were prey and then launched a completely unprovoked attack. Scary stuff. I believe the dog is being monitored for ten days for rabies and will then be put to sleep. The only sensible option imo. As for the child playing outside, I see no problem with it. The child's mother was apparently watering plants in the garden and was close by.
More than anything , this has made me see a whole new side to cats. I would never have believed they could a/ be so brave and b/ have any protective instinct towards their owners.
