When two dogs swim across a river, Sassy doesn't want to swim so she finds another way of crossing by way of rocks and a log in the stream. The cat had been trained on her compound to jump from one rock to another in a stream. She also became accustomed to the water and could swim quite well. In the film the rocks and log had been strategically placed so the cat could jump from one to the other. When Sassy goes into the river, she was put in shallow water with a harness on her. She was then released by one trainer and swam to a second trainer who had a teacher attached to her harness. There were also four people under water to monitor her safety. Several cats had been trained for this scene. Each was only in the water eight seconds. There are many shots of the cat being swept up by the fast-moving river as she heads for a very high waterfall. This was filmed using a fake cat. There are close-up shots of a frightened cat and then a shot of Sassy going over the waterfall. This scene was shot in many cuts. Fake cats, a mechanical cat, and a real cat were used. When the real cat was used, she was not in a river, but a heated pool. When Shadow attempts to rescue Sassy, and goes into the water, he is basically going from point A to point B in the water. Sassy is eventually rescued by an old woodsman who finds a lump of matted fur at the water's edge. He picks it up, hears a meow, and it turns out to be Sassy. The lump of matted fur which he first finds is the fake cat. When he picks it up the real cat was used. The cat was prepared for this scene by being sprayed down with warm water. The scene was accomplished in two takes.

Film

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