Lassie

Lassie is the main protagonist of all "Lassie" media. Despite being a female, she is always played by a male dog, starting with the collie actor Pal, and continuing with his descendants. This is because male collies retain a summer coat that is thicker than females', which looks better on TV. For her role in "Lassie Come Home", she is the only non-human character on the heroes list of "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains", occupying slot #39.