The Wooz and I were out in the backyard after school yesterday when our neighbor came out with her dog. He was a new puppy at Christmas, so he's older now but definitely <1 yr. So within seconds of saying hi and exchanging pleasantries, Puppy came barreling over to Woozle to play. She doesn't spend a lot of time with dogs (my mom has one), and while she's not scared of dogs, when exuberant Puppy jumped on her, she toppled over and then started to worry that he might eat her. Which led to scared-crying (rather than injured-crying), and between that and her flailing, Puppy got pretty excited and started jumping and barking. Again, not aggressive, just excited puppy stuff.
As I went to scoop up Woozle and Neighbor tried to wrestle her dog away, our cat came tearing out of nowhere, leapt onto the dog's back, and started clawing his head. We were all so startled that even the Woozle went from siren-wailing to slack-jawed silence. So with Wooz under my arm, I tried to wrangle the cat with my free hand and managed to get her off Puppy, until he made the mistake of looking back and giving a little yip. She bolted and attacked him again. Holy schitt.
In all the commotion, the only injury was a minor scratch to Neighbor's hand from the second attack--she was collateral damage as she tried to drag her dog back to their yard. Puppy appeared to be fine--he's very furry, which I think helped. The cat was fine. Wooz settled down. I don't think anyone is going to sue anyone.
Is it wrong that I was pretty impressed by our insane guard cat? She has always kept a watchful eye on DD since we brought her home, and now apparently when she's "attacked," the cat will take on a dog five times her size to save her. That's pretty brave (and unusually selfless), for a cat.