Biography
Rita is a feisty, independent, and lovely gray and white cat who is often singing. She accompanies her best friend, Runt on their adventures to find a home. Rita is an independent, funny, aloof, intelligent and sarcastic cat who is sometimes tough. However, this is a front masking a soft side of her that really longs for affection.
Rita and Runt’s main desire is to find a home, as made clear in Rita's songs, "A Place Called Home" and "Let's Try For Two". Usually, if they're both successful, the home turns out to want Rita and/or Runt for something at the expense of their lives. They either flee the home or are thrown out of it. Storytelling and humour with Rita focus on her disdain towards Runt and/or other people, though she does genuinely care about Runt. Normally, Rita is in the right due to the arrogance of the people she meets. Sometimes, Rita can get too comfortable in a new home she settles into, only to find out there’s something wrong there. She is capable of escaping situations on her own, but there are times she is saved by Runt, while she also tends to save him on occasions.
While Rita is the focus most of the time in Rita and Runt, Runt is usually the heroic one. However, there are some exceptions. In "Phranken-Runt", Runt was sucked up into a castle for his brain and his first thing to say when they were safe again (thanks to Rita, but Runt also defends her from a rat while they were escaping) was “Can we jump off the castle again? That was fun!” Rita is underwhelmed and considers Runt near brainless. She is also seen as a very capable fighter, able to take on Newt, a trained hunting dog, twice.
In opposition to Runt, who remains optimistic despite anything that happens to them, Rita very much dislikes being underestimated and mistreated, becoming very upset when infantilized by Kiki and when Ross Perot obviously favors Runt over her simply for being a dog. (However, she does still operate on a moral code, saving him when he falls into a river.) Her dislike also extends to others being mistreated, as she is furious to see Katrina abandoned and is quick to defend her from her pursuers.
Rita is often frustrated by Runt's stupidity, at first treating him with disdain and stating that once they found a home, she would leave and he was on his own, but gradually warms up to him throughout the segments, even giving him a kiss on the head in one episode, and displaying relief in seeing him when she is captured by a chef. As of the episode "Up a Tree," Rita occasionally sleeps in the hair on Runt’s forehead.
Though Rita's softer side is often hidden, it is still very much present. When she and Runt find a pair of kittens, Rita’s reaction is letting them cuddle close to her, until thoughts of parenting come to mind and she claims she wants nothing to do with them. She gets a nice lady to adopt the kittens and appears to be so sad about it, she has a tear. In "Puttin' on the Blitz", Rita and Runt are found by a little girl in the Poland Invasion. When they find the father however, Runt misses the train when he stops the Germans’ leader’s dog from hurting Rita. Rita jumps off the train and scares the dog away from Runt. Rather than mad at Runt, she expresses that she’s fond of him, showing Rita loves Runt back rather than simply view him as a nuisance. She expresses that she has grown fond of him and will either find a home with him or none at all.
Her favorite places are Monterey and Chicago. Unfortunately, she and Runt fail to get to those places, though they leave for Chicago at the end of "Up a Tree."
Rita also seems to have a poor sense of direction, often taking them several miles (and sometimes decades) outside of where they plan to go. She also is incredibly acrophobic.