There are many cases of pets endangering (and giving) their own lives to save those of their owners, it isn't a stretch to me to imagine that could be reciprocated.
And nobody REALLY knows what they will do in a given situation.
We had a man in a town near me who just passed away last week Captain Thomas J. Hudner who was awarded the Medal of Honor in Korea for intentionally crashing his plane to save the life of a fellow pilot who had been shot down. (He could see him trapped in his burning plane, so he crashed to pull him out and protect him from Red Chinese troops)
I marveled to my wife that a man could do that...how COULD someone do that? I had a hard time wrapping my head around it.
My wife said "If it was Dave (my best friend) you would do that for him, wouldn't you?" and then it occurred to me...yes. I supposed I could. One never knows. That is the point, to me...one never knows. If I had an animal I loved, and it was struggling to swim in a rip tide, would I go after it? I probably would, but one never knows for sure.
Thank you for the link on Tom Hudner.
It is a great story, and emblematic of American greatness and self sacrifice.
I got a little misty reading it.