Rita and Runt

Rita and Runt is a musical segment in the Animaniacs cartoon. Rita is a sassy, smart, street-wise cat, while Runt is a dumb yet sweet dog, based on Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man. Runt hates cats, but is too dippy to know his best friend is one.

They first starred together in "When Rita Met Runt", episode six. Together they had a romp through various time periods from ancient Egypt to Nazi-occupied Poland circa 1939 to Salem during the infamous witch trials and occasionally stopping by in our contemporary era. Rita enjoys breaking into impromptu songs.

Curiously, Rita and Runt were absent for the latter half of the series' run. There were rumors that no one liked the dog-and-cat-duo, that Bernadette Peters was frequently unavailable to do the role, that her salary demands were too high, even jokes that the Warners folks paid her in fish--but no one really knows why.