I used to have a Golden Retriever and a big pit mutt growing up. The Golden would try to eat/snap at our cats, and the pit would move to get between them. Not aggressing, just being very conspicuously in the way.
She was also the one to “mother” every stray litter of kittens that came through. And she’d let the ferrets clamp on her jowls with their teeth and hang from her. She’d just sit and whine and look at us until we noticed that she was being picked on and we’d have to rescue the 100-odd pound (fatty) from two ferrets who weighed in under a pound each.
