Minicomics

Battle Cat was originally a tiger that He-Man would call into battle when needed, he never spoke until the Filmation cartoon featured Cringer, his alter ego, and the comics followed suit. He appeared in the mini-comics several times until the influx of more waves of characters, he would appear less frequently as the series progressed.

Filmation

Like He-Man's character and origin story, Battle Cat was retooled to be able to talk and had an alter ego who was named Cringer and was Prince Adams companion and best friend.

Cringer was found during a nature walk by a young Prince Adam, where he was abandoned and hiding from a group of Sabercats, Adam manged to scare off the predators and took the injured cub home. The other kids often teased Cringer for being frightened by everything, even causing Adam to be embarrassed by his actions. However the Sorceress, who would be in mental contact with Adam even as a child, would comfort him by telling him that Cringer would be very important to him one day.

On an archeological dig with Melaktha, an ancient monster was set loose prompting Adam to change into He-Man, he was unaware of Cringer, who had been hiding in the shrub not to far away. After his transformation He-Man noticed Cringer, he tried to calm him by explaining that he was still Adam, Just then a bolt of energy flew out of the Sword of Power changing Cringer into Battle Cat for the first time.