Nine Lives

"Nine Lives" ranks as the first genuinely lighthearted adventure, Albert Salmi as the Irish miner Shawn Mulhare banished for carelessly lighting a fuse that causes an explosion near a legal encampment. His punishment is to replace their killed feline mascot with another equally adept at drinking beer (thus earning the name 'Boozer'), finding one with a crippled widow willing to part with her pet if he and Caine dig a well for her. There's also a family of brawling brothers led by papa Henry Skowrin (Royal Dano) eager to win $10,000 with Caine's capture. The most heartwarming sequence deals with a breech birth that endangers a pregnant mare, the foal emerging safe and unharmed. Football great Merlin Olsen was still playing for the Los Angeles Rams at the time, eventually earning his own Western series as Father Murphy. Back from the original pilot, Albert Salmi would return for a third season episode that also deals with animals, "Cry of the Night Beast."