Catso

"What's wrong, Mouse? Cat got your tongue?"

- Catso.

Catso is the main antagonist of Beverly Cleary's 1970 short adventure novel Runaway Ralph, and its 1988 film adaptation. He is an evil cat who wants to eat Ralph and is the father of Merten.

He was voiced by the late Walker Edmiston.

Role
After Ralph gets lost in the wilderness, Catso finds him and tries to teach Merton about how to hunt for mice. He continues to toss Ralph into the air while Merton continues to play with a butterfly. Catso once again tosses Ralph into the air as he is about to eat him. Before he could fall into his mouth, a boy named Garf Jerrniga catches Ralph in his butterfly net and Catso flees.

Later, Merton sneaks into the art room and mistakes Stephie's watch for a live mouse, which would eventually lead to Stephie believing that Garf stole the watch. Merton brings the watch to his father, but Catso immediately realizes that Ralph has made a fool out of him and decides to catch Ralph himself. Catso sneaks into the art room and Chum tries to warn Ralph about Catso, but Ralph ignores him. Ralph finally notices Catso before he knocks his cage down to the floor, freeing Ralph. A chase is ensued and Catso accidentally flings Ralph onto a toy plane. As Catso tries to get him down, he hits the plane, causing it to fly across the room before it hits the wall. As Catso corners Ralph, Garf arrives in the scene and yells at Catso to get out.

After Stephie accuses Garf of stealing her watch, Ralph decides to get her watch back from Catso. As Merton plays with the watch, Ralph uses his lasso to yank the watch out of Merton's mouth. Catso begins to chase Ralph until he falls into a hole. Ralph comes up with a plan to use the students' shoelaces to use Catso to pull him up to the girls' bedroom. He ties the string to Catso's tail and taunts him. Catso tries to lung towards Ralph before he realizes that he's been tied to the ground. As Merton asks him about the string tied to his tail, he hides it from him in order to not embarrass him.