Season 16

October 26, 1969

Widowed Sarah Caldwell will have to give up the family ranch if she can't keep water on the property, so Scott helps her install ""water bottles,"" large vinyl storage ""tanks."" But a thirsty fawn gets himself trapped inside the slippery containers.

November 2, 1969

As they take an elk survey, Scott and Lassie's helicopter ride turns deadly when the vehicle has has mechnical problems and crashes in the snowy wilderness. Bert tries to at least fix the communications system, but that too is beyond hope; they must rely on their survival gear and wait for rescue.

November 9, 1969

While surveying Government rangeland, Scott is hurt by a careless rifle shot fired by young Tom Bradley, a boy who has taken to playing hookey and staying in the woods after his mother's death; later, another shot of Tom's gone wrong injures his father.

November 16, 1969

Neeka, spending his vacation with Scott and Bob, is delighted to help the rangers out at the Roaring Camp spur line, a railroad that will run directly through the majestic redwood forest. There they befriend a persistent little bantam chick (Neeka names him Fairbanks) who is constantly wandering into trouble.

November 23, 1969

Bob has the weekend off, so he takes Neeka fishing on the Columbia River, but on a hike, Lassie and Neeka discover a crow building her nest in a dangerous place. When Lassie attempts to save the bird, she is swept down the icy cold river.

November 30, 1969

On a nature hike, Scott and Lassie help Kathy, a withdrawn and fearful girl who is attending school with other blind children for the first time.

December 14, 1969

Scott and Lassie help a doe who has been chased to exhaustion by snowmobilers.

December 21, 1969

Manuel Sandoval sneaks over the border with his deaf dog Poco, hoping that the Blessing of the Animals as Mission San Luis Rey will restore the little terrier's hearing in time for Christmas.

December 28, 1969

Lassie babysits a prospector's burro.

January 4, 1970

Scott and Lassie, in San Francisco's Chinatown for a mini-forest project, befriend the children in a Chinese school. Lassie is struck by a car while saving one of the children and appears to have amnesia. So when a fire strikes the vet's office she's staying at, she escapes to the streets with no idea where she belongs.

January 11, 1970

Lassie's search for her identity takes her to a wax museum and finally down to the waterfront, where she is befriended by a down-on-his-luck young fisherman with a family and a boat loan he can't pay off.

January 18, 1970

Heading back to San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge, Lassie befriends a lonely runaway teenager and a lonely soldier, then is mistaken for a possibly rabid collie named Tawny.

January 25, 1970

Her memory recovering at last, but still hunted by health officials as a rabid dog, Lassie is chased through the streets of San Francisco.

February 1, 1970

Lassie and Neeka are lost in the desert.

February 8, 1970

Neeka and Lassie take a wrong turn on the self-guided trail at the Mesa Verde National Forest, and, while trying to find their way back, slip off a cliff where Neeka breaks his leg. As darkness falls, Bob and ranger Gene McClintock desperately search for the pair.

February 15, 1970

With Bob at a meeting, Lassie visits overnight with the Frasers, a blind man and his wife who live in the woods without any way of communicating with the outside world. When Edie Fraser is hurt during a walk, Clint and his guide dog Ginger start for help, but Lassie must save them from a cougar's attack and go herself.

March 1, 1970

While Bob and Dan are scouting out the rapids for a ""whitewater trail"" for tourists, Lassie finds a baby raccoon that has been poisoned by ""pink snow""--the same material she has already eaten. The only way to get her help--a trip down the worst of the rapids.

March 8, 1970

Bob and his Navajo guide Sam find a dog swimming across Lake Powell on their way to survey tribal lands and rescue him; he is Chucka, an indolent dog who'd rather rest or play than tend sheep. But Chucka must ""grow up"" quickly after his shepherd owner, Charlie Ngani, is injured and Lassie must go for help.