Yep, including confrontations between human animals.
I’m pretty sure the wiring is not up to code with our cat’s head.
She has the look of utter distain at anyone who enters her domicile.
If her hate filled stare could kill, yes, she’d be the best protector.
This cat just saved it’s owners lives, although perhaps it was just trying to save it’s own.
Pet cat’s loud wailing during house fire leads to lucky escape for couple
Once when I was about 7 or 8 I had done done something to upset my mom and she was coming across the room obviously intent upon tearing my butt off. When out of nowhere did appear between us a twelve pound ball of growling fur, teeth, and claws.
Shocked the hell out of both of us.
But did get me out of my (totally undeserved ;)) punishment.
My cat Ichabod would defend her territory. She would attack dogs, maintenance workers, etc. Just a smallish, tuxedo kitty with a very bad attitude.
that picture is just gold. i had to scroll down to see that tiny thing at the bottom. 
exactly. a cat will defend you of its own free will, perhaps to protect its food bearing minion. a dog will defend you because that’s its responsibility; or if it’s not up to the job, cower and leave the alpha male to do his. 
My cat would never defend me from anything, coward that he is. He cries for me if he even sees a bug. However, I’m sure he would call 911 (if he had thumbs, that is) if anything ever happened to me. One night, very tired, I dramatically collapsed on the floor. He immediately became distressed, yowling and headbutting my face despite my assurances that I was just kidding.
My cat attacked my husband back before we were married. He was tickling me and I was squealing. Cat interpreted it a different way. I broke it up but it was pretty ugly for a minute!
I do that every few months. The pets give the WTF look and walk around my limp body laying on the floor. Thanks guys!
I have three cats. The Alpha, the Wannabe Alpha and the very, very emo Beta. Beta can be a real pain in the but except for when I am feeling ill. He then turns to trying to comfort me. But he is definitely at his best when Wannabe Alpha decides to test Alpha’s ability to maintain the supreme spot.
Alpha is getting old (she’s 12 now) and is beginning to slow down and thinks twice before pouncing around so Wannabe senses there will be an opening for the TopCat job. He tries chasing her and wrestling her from here to Kingdom Come. When the fracas begins, Beta just studies what is going on. Then, when the opening appears, he gets all over Wannabe and distracts him from Alpha, which allows her to catch her breath. When the fight is over, Alpha and Beta groom each other and cuddle together, clearly cutting Wannabe out of their circle.
He’s so valiant, my Beta. The defender of Alpha’s realm. It’s really cute.
Before my time, but … the family had a series of cats named “Daisy”.
One of the Daisy-cats would protect the boundary of the yard by chasing stray dogs away.
She did this by dropping down onto their backs and riding them off the property.
an seanchai
No. Cats are the assholes of the animal kingdom.
Are a lot of these cats really defending “their” humans? Some of the examples seem more like jealousy than protectiveness.
Had a bad cat experience when you were a child? One that didn’t obey you perhaps? 
I’m not sure if they were defending me, or themselves, but last Saturday a bird flew down the chimney into the (cold) furnace.
It banged around on the sheet-metall for about 10 minutes.
All three kitties, even the serious fraidy-cat, surrounded me on the bed, fluffed out like lions. The male stood hissing at the intake vent, and the girls stood on tippy toes next to my legs.
The bird went quiet for about 30 minutes, and they calmed downed. Then the bird started again, eventually finding its way out. I had fluffy kitties for the rest of the afternoon.
A cat’s owner? Cats own people, not the other way round.
Is it just me, or does anyone else get the feeling that the parents of that child didn’t trust their babysitter?
Yeah, that really looks like the proverbial nanny-cam. I wonder how they hid those (assuming they bothered to hide them), atop the crown molding or in an oddly-shaped corner lighting fixture?
We would sometimes see the cat on the deck, getting intimidated by the neighbor cat. When we opened the deck door to back it up, then it got tougher and and pushier with the intruder.
Here (video) is the cat you want on your side in a fight.
Dogs have owners.
Cats have servants.