Kit for Cat

Kit for Cat is a 1948 Looney Tunes short directed by I. Freleng.
==Title==
The title is a pun on the term "tit for tat."
==Plot==
Sylvester is in the trash alley trying to find food to eat. When a kitten comes by, Sylvester angrily yells at the kitten, "Say, listen, small fry, I'm working this side of the street! Now scram!", before tossing the kitten into another trash can, adding "Go on, beat it! Get lost!" When a blizzard comes, Sylvester decides "Cold tonight! I gotta find me a sanctuary in which to flop.". After wandering through the cold, he knocks on a door acting frozen and begging for shelter, pleading "Please, save a frost-bitten feline from a frozen fate!" The house's owner, Elmer Fudd, takes Sylvester in and warms him up by putting him on his sitting chair near the fire; he tells Sylvester to consider his home as his own now. When the kitten from earlier comes acting half frozen, Elmer Fudd takes him in as well. A rather surprised Elmer remarks "Dear me, two cats! I'd wike to have a cat awound the house alwight, but I can't keep both of ya..." When Elmer shows more interest in the kitten, Sylvester tries to act like a baby, but Fudd is disappointed by Sylvester's way of acting when he's grown-up, labelling it "a widicuwous way for a gwown-up cat to behave," and tells him to act his age. Elmer decides "Well, maybe I'd better sweep on it and make up my mind in the morning", to Sylvester's chagrin.
Later, Sylvester decides how to get rid of his competition, like thinking of hanging up the kitten, shooting him with a revolver, or tying him up and leaving him in front of a train. Sylvester chooses to frame the baby kitten by pouring all the milk in a milk bottle on him and then dropping the bottle, to make it look like the kitten did it. When Elmer comes downstairs, Sylvester points towards the kitten and Elmer asks the kitten if he just made the noise. Elmer however then assumes that the kitten did it by accident, saying "Aww, the poor wittle fewwa, you must be starved. How negwectful of me." and gives the kitten various foodstuffs, including milk, cheese, hamburgers, pickled herring, smoked barracuda, salami and bologna; Sylvester hits his head against the door frame in disappointment as each food item is mentioned.
Sylvester then throws a ball of string to the baby kitten to play with, but the other end of the string is purposely tied to a stack of glasses and dishes. When the kitten plays with it, a cup at the bottom of the stack is eventually yanked out causing the stack to fall and break. The kitten quickly tries to fix the dishes by gluing them back together, but Sylvester breaks every one he fixes. However, Sylvester ends up being the one whom Elmer catches in the act, who tells him, "So, bweaking my dishes? You're making it vewy much easier for me to make up my mind which one of you to keep!", despite Sylvester trying to apportion blame on the kitten.
Later, Sylvester spots a book on hypnotism and utilises hypnosis to instruct the kitten to hit a sleeping Elmer on the head with a baseball bat; he says, "The head. The head. On the head. Here, stupid, on the head." The kitten ends up hitting Sylvester's head instead as Sylvester stupidly pointed at his own head when instructing the kitten to hit Elmer's, causing the dazed cat to climb into bed with Elmer. Elmer, waking to notice Sylvester, throws him back down the stairs, warning him ''If I'm disturbed once more, I'm holding you wesponsible!"
Sylvester then sets a wind-up mouse toy loose and the kitten chases it, following it into a mouse hole. Sylvester locks up the mouse hole with wood and nails. The kitten, however, starts knocking out nails holding up all the portraits and things on the walls. Sylvester, remembering Elmer's warning, tries to catch all of them. The chandelier above Fudd's head crashes to the ground before Sylvester can fix it, which angers Elmer so much, that he tells Sylvester, "That's the wast stwaw! I'm giving you just one more chance! If I hear just one more sound out of you, just one more peep, just so much as one tiny wittle peep, out you go!" Sylvester jeers at him before Elmer proclaims, "And that's my final warning!"
Next, the kitten, overhearing Elmer's warning, tries to take advantage of the situation himself. When Sylvester sees the kitten trying to set off Elmer's hunting rifle, Sylvester puts some earmuffs on Elmer's head before dealing with the rifle when it does go off by plugging it with his finger. The kitten then bangs on a parade drum and slams two doors, with Sylvester stubbing his toes in attempting to stop the second door. Infuriated, Sylvester completely loses his patience with the kitten at this point and proceeds to chase him, causing the panicking kitten to turn on the radio (playing a radio drama where "Melvin" and "Beatrice" take turns trying to kill each other), activate the coin-operated pianola and try other ways to make noise (including shooting the rifle again) Eventually, all the noise crescendos, too loud for even the earmuffs on Elmer's head to block out thanks to a last-minute addition of Sylvester crashing into a metal bowl the kitten held up; he stops them and says that he has "made up [his] mind who's weaving these pwemises!", but is then confronted by his landlord who tells him "Oh no, you haven't, I've made up my mind! Here!", serving him an eviction notice likely due to the excessive noise. Elmer, Sylvester, and the kitten now all look for food in the trash alley.
==Availability==
Lt vs11.jpg|(1984) VHS The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 11 (Blue Ribbon version)
SYLVESTER AND TWEETY'S BAD OL' PUTTY TAT BLUES.jpg|(1994) LaserDisc Sylvester and Tweety's Bad Ol' Putty Tat Blues (Blue Ribbon version)
Elmer Fudd (1990) (UK VHS).jpeg|(1990) VHS Elmer Fudd (1990) (Blue Ribbon version)
Bumper04.jpg|(1996) VHS Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 4) (Blue Ribbon version)
Lt collection elmer fudd.jpg|(1996) VHS Elmer Fudd (Blue Ribbon version)
51Rir IkqCL.jpg|(1997) VHS Classic Bumper Collection (Blue Ribbon version)
Lt ww 1998 no.jpg|(1998) VHS Wideo Wabbit (1998 "THIS VERSION" print, with original opening credits)
LTCE VOL 9 A LOONEY LIFE.jpg|(2000) VHS Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 9: A Looney Life (1998 "THIS VERSION" print, with original opening credits)
Lt ww vcd.jpg|(2003) VCD Wideo Wabbit (1998 "THIS VERSION" print, with original opening credits)
LT Golden Collection 1.jpg|(2003) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc Four (restored, low-pitched, with original opening credits)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection 1.jpg|(2003) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume 1, Disc 2 (restored, low-pitched, with original opening credits)
Lt cas2.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volume 2 (restored, low-pitched, with original opening credits)
Lt cas12.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volumes 1 & 2, Disc 2 (restored, low-pitched, with original opening credits)
LooneyTunes CenterStageV2.jpg|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Center Stage Volume 2 (restored, low-pitched, with original opening credits)
Lt spotlight v1-3.jpg|(2018) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 1-3 Repack (restored, low-pitched, with original opening credits)
=== Streaming===
Lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App (2017 - ) (1998 "THIS VERSION" print, with original opening credits)
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max Latin America / Brazil (2021 - ) (restored, low-pitched, with original opening titles, credits and closing titles)
== Television==
*This short aired on The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show on 9 December 1995.https://web.archive.org/web/20120509213611/http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv/bugstweety/bntmem1.html
== Censorship ==
*When this short aired on ABC, the whole scene of Sylvester hypnotizing the kitten to hit sleeping Fudd on the head with a baseball bat and being himself hit by said bat, awakening Elmer, who throws Sylvester out of his bedroom was removed. Also cut was Sylvester trying to plug a rifle with his finger.https://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-k-l.aspx
== Goofs ==
* In the 2020 restored version that is available on HBO Max in Latin America and airs on MeTV, the font of the "That's all Folks!" script is much thicker than usual.
== Notes ==
*This cartoon is a remake of the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Hare Force".
*The radio soap opera characters "Melvin" and "Beatrice" are references to actors Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet, who voiced them.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040514/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ql_1
*A bottle in the trash is labeled “Pratt’s Cocktail Sherry”, a reference to layout artist Hawley Pratt.
*The background used for the opening titles is similar to that of "Back Alley Oproar". Coincidentally, both lost their original credits upon re-release and both cartoons had original titles eventually restored to them.
*This was only one of five post-1948 WB cartoons to get a Blue Ribbon reissue prior to 1956 - with the original credits cut. The others were "Daffy Dilly", "The Foghorn Leghorn", "Scaredy Cat", and "You Were Never Duckier". "Kit for Cat" was the only one of these to originally be a Looney Tune (the rest were Merrie Melodies), and the only Friz Freleng-directed cartoon in the group.
*The scene of Sylvester looking through trash cans is recycled from “Life with Feathers“. Likewise, his thoughts on how to get rid of the kitten are styled similarly to the lovebird's thoughts on how to commit suicide from the same short. With the exception of the noose thought (which substitutes the one of jumping off a high building), they are near-identical.
*The release on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 and Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volume 1 contains the reissue closing titles with the original ending music. It was later restored with the original closing titles in 2020 for HBO Max in Latin America.
**While earlier prints have the 1955-56 Blue Ribbon ending Color Rings, a 1998 WB THIS VERSION print shown on television (usually outside the USA) and on the European VHS tape Wideo Wabbit has the original 1948-1949 opening, credits, and ending rings restored. The newer 2003 restored version on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 DVD uses the 1955-1956 Blue Ribbon ending card. The 2021 re-restoration on the other hand re-restores the original 1948-1949 ending rings, much like the aforementioned 1998 WB THIS VERSION print.
==Gallery==
KitForCatCredits1.png
KitForCatCredits2.png
KitForCatLobbyCard2.jpg|Lobby card
51Xj8OIWO9L. SX342 .jpg|Lobby card
Gfdgghko98u6t.jpg|Title card production background
==References==
fr:Vilains félins
Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng
Category:Sylvester Cartoons
Category:Elmer Fudd Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:1948
Category:Blue Ribbon reissues
Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Paul Julian
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Bea Benaderet
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist