Penelope Pussycat (Looney Tunes)

Pepe capturing Penelope

Penelope Pussycat, often shortened to just "Penelope," is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic cat featured in the Warner Bros. classic Looney Tunes animated shorts. Although she is typically a non-speaker, her "meows" and "purrs" were most often provided by Mel Blanc using a feminine voice. In the 1959 short Really Scent, she was voiced by June Foray. As of 2013, her only real speaking role was in the 1995 short Carrotblanca, where she was voiced by Tress MacNeille. It can be postulated with the inconsistencies in her naming that every sighting of her is simply a random black cat until "Penelope Pussycat" was named on screen in Carrotblanca using the black cat animation.

Character History & Personality

Penelope is best known as the often bewildered love interest of Pepé Le Pew. Penelope is a typical black and white pussycat, though by some means or another, she often finds herself with a white stripe down her back, whether painted intentionally or by accident.

She often finds herself constantly being chased by the overly enthusiastic Pepé, but when the occasion has presented itself, Penelope has been the pursuer. For Scent-imental Reasons, Little Beau Pepe, and Really Scent have all shown Penelope to harbor an attraction to Pepe whenever his scent is neutralized (though in each referenced instance, extenuating circumstances have caused Pepe to become frightened by her, inciting Penelope to reverse the roles). In more recent years, merchandising from Warner Bros. (such as ornaments, glass wear, statuettes and children's activity books) has depicted Penelope and Pepe as mutually attracted "sweethearts", although other modern media (such as The Looney Tunes Show and the current Looney Tunes comic book series) has maintained their classic "chasing" relationship.

It has been implied that Penelope is genuinely attracted to Pepe, but Pepe's two biggest turnoffs are his scent and his habit of coming on too strong.