Scaredy Cat

Porky purchases a new home from a real estate agent, and the house turns out to be a Gothic-style dwelling. He finds the place quaint and peaceful, though his cat Sylvester is clearly unsettled by its creepy atmosphere. Porky remains optimistic about settling in for his first night.

A bat swoops through the dark halls, frightening Sylvester and driving him to take shelter in Porky's coat. Porky dismisses the bat as harmless and declares he will go upstairs to bed, while Sylvester is forced to sleep in the kitchen. The cat frets as the night deepens.

Unknown to Porky, Sylvester clings along all the way to the bedroom and ends up in Porky's bed. Porky discovers the cat there and kicks him down the stairs, ordering Sylvester to stay in the kitchen. The frightened feline retreats, though clearly unwilling to heed the command.

Sylvester glimpses a houseful of murderous mice, including a hooded rodent about to decapitate the previous owner's cat. He tries to mime what happened to Porky, but the pigmist dismisses it as ridiculous acting and sends him back to the kitchen. The danger deepens as the mice scheme against both of them.

Terrified, Sylvester pulls a pistol from a dresser and threatens to shoot himself rather than face the mice. Porky disarms him and, to placate him, lets him share the bed for the night. The uneasy truce keeps them both in the same room as the danger looms.

Four mice push the bed out of the window, where it gets stuck on a pole. Sylvester, half-asleep, tries to close the window and ends up walking on air as the pole sends the bed back into the room. He eventually re-enters the bed, though a small mishap leaves him with a big headache.

The hooded mouse moments later prepares to drop an anvil on Porky from above. Sylvester grabs the anvil at the last moment, startling Porky, who then decides to drop it on Sylvester's head and march them toward the kitchen. The chaotic duo stumbles forward through the house as the mice close in.

The mice roll a bowling ball down the banister aimed at Porky. Sylvester rockets down to shove Porky out of the way, sending him headfirst into a laundry basket in the kitchen. The bowling ball strikes Sylvester, knocking him unconscious as the chaos continues at the foot of the stairs.

Porky, unaware of the danger, carries Sylvester to the kitchen and places him in a basket that is lowered below the floor. He remains there from just after 1:00 A.M. to just before 4:00 A.M., enduring the night in the hidden space while the house swarms with mice.

Raised back up just before 4:00 A.M., Sylvester emerges with his fur turned pale gray from the ordeal. He rushes to Porky's room, startling the pig awake and prompting a desperate rethinking of their situation. The boldness that follows marks a turning point for the cat.

In the kitchen, the mice parade as they did before, but this time Porky is the one bound and gagged, being led toward decapitation. A weeping Porky holds up a sign reading 'YOU WERE RIGHT – SYLVESTER,' exposing that Sylvester's fears were justified. Horrified, Sylvester flees the house in a panic.

A miniature Sylvester wearing a wizard's robe and carrying a wand appears as his conscience, scolding him for cowardice. The conscience uses diagrams to show the size difference between a cat and the mice and urges Sylvester to return to the house and take action. Reinvigorated, Sylvester resolves to fight.

Sylvester grabs a tree branch and decides to use the whole tree as a weapon. He storms back into the mouse-infested house and launches a fierce counterattack. The mice scatter as Sylvester proves his courage, much to his conscience's delight.

With the mice seemingly defeated, Porky thanks Sylvester for saving him. A final mouse, hidden near a longcase clock, reveals himself as Lew Lehr in caricature, wearing a Napoleonic-era bicorne hat and delivering the line, 'Pussycats is the cwaziest peoples!' The humor undercuts the danger and gives a last laugh to the chaos.