Love That Pup

Love That Pup is a 1949 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 44th Tom and Jerry short released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred Quimby, music scored by Scott Bradley, and animated by Ed Barge, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Kenneth Muse. (This is the first time Daws Butler voiced Spike the Bulldog in the late 1940s, because Daws Butler took Billy Bletcher's place as actor.)

Plot
Spike is sleeping beside his son Tyke when Tyke suddenly wakes up from a nightmare. Spike then comforts his son back to sleep again. No sooner has Tyke dozed off again than Tom and Jerry enter the scene. Tom runs through a door (literally) and into some spades, rakes and hoes, as Jerry hides among the two dogs. To find Jerry, Tom picks Tyke up to look underneath the puppy.

Tom holds up his right hand and sees nothing, then holds up his left hand, and drops Tyke in fear. Tom smiles nervously, attempting to run off, but just as he does Spike grabs Tom's whiskers and issues him an ultimatum: the cat had better leave Tyke alone or suffer the consequences. Tom runs, crashing into (in turn) a tree, a fountain, a clothesline hanger and then into a trash can.

Jerry emerges from Tyke's ear and walks off casually until Tom comes running back. Jerry takes cover by diving into what appears to be Spike's jaw, but he really ducked under the dog's chin. Seeing the dog smack his lips as if having eaten the mouse, Tom then places his hand carefully in Spike's mouth while the dog is sleeping, and Jerry emerges from his hiding place and slams the bulldog's jaws shut with Tom's hand still in Spike's mouth. Tom yells in pain and leaps a meter back. Spike wakes up as Tom struggles to get his hand out of his mouth, pulling Spike's teeth out in the process. Tom smiles innocently again, and uses Spike's teeth as castanets while doing a Flamenco dance (while clicking to the tune of "The Mexican Hat Dance") out of the scene and runs away, dropping the teeth on the bucket.

A few moments later, Tom spies Jerry sleeping next to Tyke, now using the dogs as canine shields. Hiding behind Tyke's kennel, he reaches out for Jerry. Jerry quietly moves Tyke's tail into Tom's grip, so that Tom ends up grabbing Tyke. After running off with the little pup, Tom realizes his mistake. He turns around to see a sleeping Spike feeling for Tyke. Tom rushes back into Tyke's place, taking on the role of Tyke. To wake up the dog, Jerry then lifts up Tyke's kennel and slams it on Tom's tail. Tom screams in pain, and Spike picks him up and pats him on the back. Just then, Tyke walks back onto the scene and whimpers. Spike looks at Tom suspiciously. Tom duplicates Tyke's whimpering and barking, but accidentally meows when he tries to duplicate his growl. Spike then scowls angrily and ferociously at Tom until Tom clamps his jaws on the dog's nose and runs away, causing the dog to scream. Tom takes a detour to the side, sets up a rake for the dog to run into if he follows him, and then watches as Spike takes the original route. Knowing he is losing his opponent, he runs back through the detour and onto his own rake.

Tom finally realizes that in order to get Jerry, Spike, who is effectively Jerry's shield, has to be removed from the picture. He does this by dangling a large piece of T-bone steak from a clothesline. A sleeping Spike, holding a shotgun in his arms, senses the delectable piece of meat, and sleepwalks after the steak. Jerry, who had tied himself to Tyke as a precautionary measure, is privy to what Tom is trying to accomplish. All of Jerry's efforts to wake up the mesmerized dog fail, and he ends up getting literally flattened. Tom successfully locks Spike in a garden shed. An evil Tom smiles at Jerry. A horrified Jerry runs. Tom knows he could now attack Jerry if it weren't for his overprotective shield.

Tom then catches Jerry, trapping him inside an upturned barrel and hammering a cork in its knothole. However, without Tom noticing, Jerry escapes through the side of the barrel and puts Tyke under the barrel instead. Spike busts himself out of the shed and under the impression the cat has been at Tyke again, rushes up to Tom angrily and demands to know where his son is, threatening to skin the cat alive if by some trick of fate he sees Tyke underneath the barrel. Tom confidently starts to lifts up the barrel, until he hears a whistle, and looks to his side to see Jerry lying on top of a nearby fence, waving to him. Tom does a double gulp, realizing he has been put in serious trouble. Spike tells Tom to lift the barrel up. Shivering, Tom nervously begins to lift the barrel, but just as he does Spike impatiently snatches it up and Tyke is lying underneath it, wiggling his tail at his father. This proves to be the last straw for Spike--Tom makes a quick exit, into the tree, fountain and clothes line, but is stopped by the bulldog's fist. With a loud roar, Spike angrily and violently attacks the cat off-screen. The cat lets off loud screams of pain while being attacked.

Later that night, Tom literally has been skinned alive by Spike, and he is wearing an armor-plated barrel to cover the disappearance of his missing fur. While standing outside the gate, having been assigned by Spike to guard them with a baseball bat, he looks through the hole in the wall to see if his fur is being used as a cozy rug by a sleeping Spike, Tyke and Jerry, who hangs a "DO NOT DISTURB" sign on Spike's ear before falling asleep.

Voice cast

 * Daws Butler as Spike the bulldog
 * William Hanna as Tom Cat (screams)

Availability
DVD
 * Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 3, Disc One