'Early Edition' Cat -
Easy-going 11-pound orange tabby cat on the fantasy drama EARLY
EDITION/CBS/1996-2000. During each episode, a mysterious cat
(played by Panther the cat) appeared at the doorstep of Gary
Hobson, a Chicago do-gooder (Kyle Chandler). The cat delivered a
mystical copy of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper which contained
the events of the "next" day's news.
Panther the cat was trained by Bill Casey who adopted him in 1988
when he found the sickly year-old feline in an animal shelter.
After a year of care by local a veterinarian medical school and
thousands in medical costs, Panther was back on his feet (paws).
When Panther turned nine-years-old he got the gig as 'the cat' on
EARLY EDITION. At the end of the first season, Panther, needed
major surgery and missed the last show. He returned for the next
season and was soon given an understudy named Carl the Cat to help
out.
In the "Encyclopedia of TV Pets" (p. 85) Casey revealed "Of course,
the nice thing about the EARLY EDITION assignment was the fact
that the cat was almost somewhat of a mythical, mystical type of
figure, so it was never really identified in the show other than
pretty much 'the cat,' yet all of our scripts had him clearly
named Carl."
Bill Casey also handled Spike the German Shepherd (played by
Trucker) and later a Golden Retriever (Riley) who served as the
seeing-eye dog for the blind Marissa Clark (Shanesia
Davis-Williams).
