For those who were born after the last episode of CatDog was aired in 2005 – CatDog is an animated cartoon that depicts the life of conjoined brothers – one half being a cat, and the other being a dog. After 68 great episodes, the series discontinued but still continues to be a long, memorable series to us 1990s kids.
I remember when I was younger in elementary school, my brother and I would look forward to coming home after being dropped off at the bus stop. We’d run to our house, drop our bags and sit on the couch waiting for CatDog to air. Our school session typically ended around 2:45pm, the bus would drop us home by 3:15, and CatDog showed at 3:30pm. Imagine, for about five years, doing this every day.
A couple of days ago, my friends and I were talking about our favorite animated 90s shows, and mine was CatDog. We were then brought to the question, “Wait, did we ever meet CatDog’s parents?” We did in Episode “Vexed of Kin.” CatDog’s mother is a sasquatch and CatDog’s Father is a frog with the nose. It’s common to not remember who their parents were, but it still remains a mystery why they were a sasquatch and a frog. If you remember CatDog’s movie, “CatDog and the Great Parent Mystery,” it’s about a quest to find their parents. Long story short – With the parent day festival that was going on in Nearburg, CatDog feels a little left out, so Dog talks Cat into going on a hunt to find their parents. I won’t spoil what adventures they went through, but at the end of the movie, Cat and Dog do find their parents at last.
I took the time to research weird theories about CatDog’s creator, Peter Hannan. Just to make things clear – I’m not a professional movie critic and these theories were based on a website called “Amazing Cat Dog Man.” CatDog’s biological parents are truly a cat and a dog. However, it’s said that CatDog went from being with their real parents to being abandoned outside a cave in Yonderland, where they ended up being in the care of their other parents. This theory suggests that the combined animals were too difficult and unacceptable to society that they parents wanted left them with the full intention of abandonment.
It’s heartbreaking of course, but from the movie, CatDog’s sasquatch and frog are their true parents because at the end, CatDog and their parents went back to Nearburg to celebrate their own Parents’ Day together. When the series ended in 2005, it felt like a closure to my childhood. To me, it was more than an animation film. It’s a memoir of my brother and I who had no responsibilities besides catching that bus home and racing to the couch before 3:30pm hit.