Questions about legality of defending pets

So I'm relatively new to CCW and I have an awesome dog that I often take in public for walks and all, and I've noticed a lot of people around here are super nervous around dogs (at first I thought it was just me or the dog but the majority of the people are Indian, and I've since learned that the culture makes some of them wary of any normal size dog due to the wild dogs in India.) And not that I think anyone would do anything but I've constantly wondered about the legality of defending my dog if it came to that.Say someone, for any reason, came up and tried to kill or seriously hurt my dog even though I always keep her on a leash and no more than 5 feet from me, would I be able to defend my dog with lethal force or would I then be charged for killing or shooting at the person trying to shoot/stab/kill my dog? I'm wondering wether in the eyes of the law a pet is considered property or another life or something more. I'm in Texas for reference, thank you. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2EswSz5