For the first time, a Los Angeles shelter's Hero Dog award has gone to a cat.

In May 2014, Tara the cat fought off a dog that attacked her six-year-old owner as he rode his bicycle in the driveway of the family's Bakersfield home.

Tara body-slammed Scrappy, a chow-mix that lived next door, when the dog got out of his yard, ran for Jeremy Triantafilo, grabbed his leg and started shaking the boy from side-to-side. Tara chased the dog toward its home. The dog was later euthanized.

Jeremy, who is autistic and had to have eight stitches, calls Scrappy a "bad dog," said his dad, Roger Triantafilo. About Tara, Jeremy said, "She is my hero."

"We were so impressed by Tara's bravery and fast action that the selection committee decided that a cat this spectacular should be the National Hero Dog," said Madeline Bernstein, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles. The shelter's 33rd annual award was presented to the family in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.

Footage of Tara's heroics, from home security videos, made her an international celebrity when Triantafilo put it on YouTube. It's gotten more than 650,000 hits so far.

There was one alteration in the trophy: the word "Dog" was scratched out and the word "Cat" etched in.