Marc Antony and Pussyfoot

From left to right: Claude Cat, Pussyfoot and Marc Antony.

Marc Antony and Pussyfoot (sometimes called "Kitty", but in some of the WB animation history books, she was always referred to as "Cleo") are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Marc Antony is a burly bulldog, usually brown with a tan belly and black ears, though his coloration varies in some shorts. Pussyfoot/Cleo, in contrast, is an extremely cute to whom Marc is utterly devoted. All head and eyes, she is black with a white face and belly and a white tip on her fluffy tail.

Animator Chuck Jones first introduced the odd duo in his film Feed the Kitty, first released on 2 February, 1952. In the short, Marc Antony adopts the interminably cute kitten only to receive a stern warning from his owner not to "bring one more thing into this house . . . not one single solitary thing!" Marc Antony is thus forced to go to all lengths to keep his new pet under wraps. Meanwhile, Pussyfoot's cat-killing curiosity gets her into mess after mess, which Marc Antony must, of course, rescue her from. Jones would largely repeat the scenario in 1953 with Kiss Me Cat, only this time Marc Antony tries to convince his owners that the kitten is a champion mouser so they will let him keep her.

In Feline Frame-Up (1954), Jones pitted Marc Antony against another of his lesser-known players, Claude Cat. The conniving Claude convinces the animals' stodgy master that Marc Antony is trying to eat Pussyfoot, eventually leading to the poor pooch being tossed into the streets. As Claude enjoys his new dog-free life, Marc Antony trades his brawn for brains as he makes various attempts to get back at the cat from outside the house (he eventually forces Claude to sign a confession admitting to his crimes, and in the end, it's Claude who must sleep in the street).

Jones gave Pussyfoot a solo short in 1957 with Go Fly a Kit, the story of an eagle who teaches the kitten how to fly. In 1958, Jones once again paired the cat and canine for one final film, Cat Feud. This time, Marc Antony must defend Pussyfoot (and her catfood) from a thieving interloper.

After this cartoon, Jones retired the pair. Since then, they have been largely forgotten, replaced by other characters such as Jones' earlier but more successful creations, Wile E. Coyote and Pepe le Pew. Pussyfoot has appeared in some recent Warner Bros. merchandising, however, and the pair have been featured in various Warner Bros. productions, such as the third segment of the Twilight Zone movie, and a 1999 Looney Tunes comic book story called "Bringing Up Baby". Tiny Toon Adventures also featured a similar character named Barky Marky who was a comparatively minor character on the show. (One episode even listed in its gag credit, "Barky Marky is not in enough scripts.") A segment of "Feed the Kitty" (in which Marc Anthony believes that Pussyfoot has been turned into a cookie) was also the subject of a homage in the Pixar film Monsters, Inc., which features Sully (who believes the character Boo has fallen in to a trash compactor) reacting nearly shot for shot as Marc Anthony did in his cartoon short.

Feed the Kitty is the only cartoon currently available on DVD. It appears on the compilation Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1