[traderrob6]

“It seems the role of “Cheeta” was played by several different animals just as “Lassie” the dog was.”

But not this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheeta

[ETL]

Re: “It seems the role of “Cheeta” was played by several different animals just as “Lassie” the dog was.”

But not this one

The link you provided (same as mine in post 32 above) states the role of 'Cheeta' was played by numerous other chimps. The one that just died apparently was "Cheetah-Mike".

[count-your-change]

There it says this last one was born in the 60’s, if so then others played the role. The author Rosen claims this one in fact never played the part.