Punkin' Puss

With Susie McStomp:

* Nadia Coyote-McStomp

* Shot Heard ‘Round the World ( Blazin’ Trails Redux, season 2, episode 23, guest appearance)

### Last Appearance

* Happy Trails, Sheriff (Blazin’ Trails Redux season 7, episode 32)

**Punkin' Puss** is an orange-furred tabby who lives in the Ozark mountain country. The self-proclaimed “boss of these yar hills”, his time is split between feuding with the hill folk—namely his lifelong nemesis, Mushmouse—and getting into trouble, in no part due to his ornery nature; nevertheless, he’s good friends with both Ricochet Rabbit and Droop-a-Long Coyote. Several events, including liaisons with both Harmony Sue and Susie McStomp, and his newfound friendship with Mushmouse, would bring him a lot of trouble with his maniacal family—and in turn, bring him a new one he thought he could never have.

Though slated to have a semi-major role in the original *Blazin’ Trails*, Punkin’ only made one appearance in the final chapter. He is elevated as an important guest star in the series’ remake, *Blazin’ Trails Redux*, taking a larger role in seasons 3 and 4.

## Personality

Punkin' Puss is often described as an “ornery critter” and there’s little doubt as to why–he’s known to be a bully towards mice–particularly Mushmouse, his favorite target. He possesses a very short temper, and his solution to dealing with problems is to either fight them or take his rifle to them. Ricochet Rabbit, who also possesses a hot temper, actually fears Punkin’s temper, noting that it’s bad news when he gets a hold of his blunderbuss. He can be greedy as well, and has been known to butter people up if they have money. He fancies himself a ladies’ man, and doesn’t have second thoughts of agreeing to any kind of proposition (short of sacrificing his personal dignity) in order to get laid, as evidenced by his flings with both Harmony Sue and Susie McStomp. Although he is a frontiersman, he spends majority of his days feuding and fussing with his lifelong nemesis, Mushmouse. He is wholly devoted to this feud, even going as far as to set times for it to start and end. For all his talk about being “the boss in these yar hills”, he’s quick to cowardice and will choose flight over fight if things get bad enough. He also doesn’t like the idea of commitment, and flees from the very proposition of marriage, which is the main reason he avoids Susie like the plague.

Because of his bad traits, not many believe that there is a good side of Punkin’ Puss. As an independent frontiersman who’s proud of his heritage, Punkin’ Puss himself has trouble expressing feelings other than simply anger or annoyance as he doesn’t want to be known as “soft”. He mostly keeps his emotions to himself due to this, as well as a tendency to allow them (or his fears) to consume him to the point where he immediately jumps in. This doesn’t always help him, but it does show that he cares for his friends. He values loyalty and honesty over everything else (which is ironic since he’s quick to lie) and vows never steal from his friends (although he can be greedy when money’s involved), no matter what their standing; in fact, the few things that riles him up more than anything else are people who break their word, steal, or betray, whether they do it to him or to someone else. He can be genuinely nice to people that he’s friends with, something that has confused Mushmouse. He also doesn’t like the thought of taking someone’s life, whether it was for sport or if it was necessary, which is demonstrated often in his feud with Mushmouse, as seen below. Through reconnecting with his daughter Nadia, his fling Susie, and his half-sister Catalina, he learns to open up and express his emotions more, namely his love for his family and his hatred towards his father for what he did to his mother. This eventually allows him to come to terms with what he did with Susie, and realize that he wants more than just a fling with her, which he confesses to her in the fifth season finale.

Similar to Ricochet, Punkin’ Puss was taught several speciest things, such as to hate mice and to be distrustful of certain species who were natural enemies to cats (ie. Dogs, rabbits, etc.). While he followed his father’s example on hating mice, he would, oddly enough, disregard his father’s advice on becoming enemies with other species, especially once he became good friends with Ricochet and later Touché Turtle, because in his opinion, anybody who can put him at ease is a person worth keeping around. When he becomes good friends with Mushmouse, he comes to regret the horrible things he did to the mouse, and initially thought he was going to be killed for it, only to be relieved when the mouse forgave him. The true testament to his character development would be when Nadia falls in love with Armani Hound, and was initially hesitant to tell him due to knowing her father’s temperament. Punkin’ tells her that the person she loves could be someone from another planet and he’d support her regardless, so long as the man treated her right.

Despite his obsessive, destructive and often complicated feud with Mushmouse, Punkin’ Puss will look out for his well being. He often becomes despaired at the thought of having killed Mushmouse, and on very rare occasions, he can be genuinely friendly to the mouse. He also has a deeply hidden protective streak towards him, shown often when another cat beats up on Mushmouse, although he’s quick to state that the only reason he protects him is so he can shoot him later. In *Blazin’ Trails Redux*, their relationship gets better once they finally decide to put aside their differences during a “temporary truce”, though Punkin’ faced a lot of ostracism from his family (who have a notorious hatred of mice) and was nearly killed over his friendship with Mushmouse.

Similar to Droop-a-Long Coyote, Punkin' Puss is a very good cook, and is also smarter than one would assume on the surface.

## Trivia

* Though not as extreme as either Ricochet Rabbit or Droop-a-Long Coyote, Punkin’ Puss also got several changes from his cartoon portrayal, courtesy of both iheartgod175 and Vulaan Kulaas:
	+ Punkin's portrayal in this series comes from the *Temporary Truce* universe, which also features Ricochet and Droop-a-Long. In that universe, he starts off as being himself from canon, but over time starts to develop a good, genuine friendship with Mushmouse, which is nearly destroyed by his maniacal family. In Redux, the two eventually form this kind of friendship, with elements lifted from this very universe.
	+ Iheartgod175 wanted to give him more personality and layers to his character rather than portraying him as a simple, ornery hillbilly. His nastier traits haven’t been completely erased, but there are a few more layers to his character such as his inner fears and knowing of rights and wrongs. He’s meant to be a foil to both Ricochet and Droop-a-Long—the former with his short temper and aloofness, and the latter with his own fears and concerns—as to what they could’ve been like instead.
	+ iheartgod175 added to his character later on in the Blazin’ Trails Redux universe, having him develop friendships with both Mushmouse and Touché Turtle. The latter was cited as a burst of inspiration, as she was having trouble cementing Touché’s role in the series and how to tie in Punkin’s relation to Catalina Gutierrez, his half-sister. In addition, she added that he was “quite a horn ball”, and went around with anything that moved, hence why he wasn’t entirely against Susie going after him. This information was inspired by a Tumblr post from a blogger known as “sohannabarberaesque” that featured Punkin’ meeting and hooking up with a woodland creature, which inspired the author. This inspiration would also carry over to her good friend and co-author, Vulaan Kulaas, as seen below.
	+ Vulaan Kulaas’s contributions to his character included his eventual romance with Susie McStomp, who was a one-off character in his respective cartoon and his resident abhorrent admirer. Shortly after iheartgod175 made the above edit regarding Punkin’s romantic history, she would include a litter of kittens that he’d have as a result of his liaisons with Harmony Sue, another one-off character whom he had a romantic interest in.
* Similar to Ricochet and Droop-a-Long, he is one of the few Hanna-Barbera characters who doesn't have "birthday" (as even characters such as Touché Turtle have one). For the purpose of Blazin' Trails, he does have one and shares a birthday month with Quick Draw McGraw.
* He has an "odd friendship" with just about everyone he meets, though it's more obvious with Ricochet than with Droop-a-Long. Ricochet and Punkin' pick at and nag each other all the time, and even make snide remarks about each other's background (Ricochet's moniker for him is "stubborn hillcat" and Punkin's moniker for Ricochet is "smarty-aleck Westerner"), but the two remain close friends, and Punkin’ notes that Ricochet is one of the few people that he outright respects.
	+ Punkin’ would also develop a similar friendship with Touché Turtle, who often has to keep things on an even keel between him and Mushmouse. They do pick and nag at each other a few times, with Punkin’s nickname for him being “half-shell halfwit”, but eventually the two would bond over the trauma of their families’ lies, separation from their siblings and how to deal with their emotions properly.
* He also has many cousins just like Mushmouse, though many of them are just as cruel as he is (or even more so).
* Punkin’ Puss is one of several male characters in the series who were self-professed “ladies’ men”—or as iheartgod175 and fellow co-author Vulaan Kulaas describe them, “himbos”. Others include Ricochet Rabbit and Alfonso Falconeri, Jr., before their respective reformations.