If you think about it in terms of fictional/real, there was NO
real Lassie - that canine actor wasn't Lassie at all . . . he just played her on camera, lol!
Semantics-wise, I guess we should differentiate between the
original Lassie character and the screen version
But, I like the fact that Colliekid considers the book to be the
real source of Lassie. How many even know, let alone remember that the character came from a book, not a TV show?