Perdita

Perdita (or Perdy for short) a beautiful, British Dalmatian and is the deuteragonist of Disney's 101 Dalmatians. She is Pongo's wife, the mother of 15 puppies, and the adopted mother of 85 puppies. Perdy is voiced partially by Lisa Daniels (also the voice of her "pet" Anita) and the rest of the way by Cate Bauer in the first film, the late Mary Kay Bergman in the animated storybook computer game, Pam Dawber in the TV series, and Kath Soucie in Patch's London Adventure and House of Mouse.

Biography
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

Perdita was a dalmatian who lived in London with her owner/pet Anita. One day, while on a walk to Regents Park, she attracted the attention of another dalmatian called Pongo, who was looking for a suitable mate for himself and his owner/pet Roger Raddcliffe.

Later at the park, Perdita was sitting next to Anita on a park bench when Pongo (who had tricked Roger into quitting his work early so that he and Anita could meet up) strolled past her trying to attract her attention.

Perdita then starts noiticing Pongo, but tries to act like she's not interested. Pongo then tries a trick to attract their attention by stealing Roger's hat and placing it on the park bench next to Anita. At first, it seems to work, but then Anita and Perdy suddenly leave. This forces Pongo to try another trick, in which he wraps his lead around both Roger and Anita. This backfires terribly as it causes them both to fall into a pond. Perdy desperately tries to prevent her owner from falling in by grabbing her dress which only causes her to accidently rip off part of the dress.

She is, at first, mad with Pongo for getting her owner wet. However as both dog owners talk and fall in love, Pongo and Perdy also fall in love and two couples soon get married.

During the first 6 months of their marriage, the two couples are living in a flat close to regents park with their new housemaid Nanny. Perdita becomes pregnant with puppies which are expected to arrive in October. However, just as Pongo and Perdita were resting by window together, Perdy suddenly hears a loud car horn. She immediately recognizes it as belonging to none other than Cruella De Vil, a psychopathic, fur-loving socialite and an old school friend of Anita. Perdita knows her well (presumably) and refers to her as "a devil woman".

Fearing Cruella, she immediately hides in the kitchen, but is able to hear the madwoman's strange obsession for her puppies. Hearing this, she starts regretting having puppies in the first place.

The puppies arrive three weeks later and the whole family is overjoyed (especially Pongo) when they hear she's given birth to a litter of 15. However the celebrations are cut short when Cruella arrives, hoping to buy puppies right away. Fortunately, Roger plucks up the courage to stand up to Cruella and refuse her offer. This causes Cruella to lash out, breaking friends with Anita and swearing vengence on the Radcliffes and their dogs. Pongo immediately runs down to the attic to see Perdita (who is exhausted from giving birth) and tellS her the good news. Perdita, relived that their puppies are safe, then drifts off to sleep with her mate and her new litter.

Three months later in December, the puppies have grown and are watching their favorite TV program, The Thunderbolt Adventure Hour. During the program, Perdita interacts with her children; telling Lucky to get down from the TV, reminding Rolly that they have just had dinner and scolding Patch for his coarse language.

When the show ends, Perdy decides to send her puppies to bed while she and Pongo are taken on a walk to the park. However in their absence, two thugs named Jasper and Horace Badun break into their house and dognap the puppies.

When they discover the theft, Perdita is absolutely devastated over the loss of her children. After both Roger and Antia and Scotland Yard fail to find the pups, Pongo and Perdy decide to take matters into their own paws and use the Twilight Bark to find out the location of their puppies. They eventually receive word that the puppies are being held at Hell Hall in Suffolk. When they hear that Hell Hall belongs to the De Vil family, they immediately realize that Cruella had been orchestrating the theft all along. They quickly set off on a perilous journey across the english countryside, facing the harsh winter weather among other hazards.

When they arrive at Hell Hall, they meet a sheepdog called the colonel who informs them that the puppies are inside the house along with his associate Sgt Tibbs. The two quickly burst in through the window of house just as Jasper and Horace are about to kill their puppies. The pair proceed to viciously fend off the Baduns while the puppies escape with Tibbs. Perdita, in particular pulls Horace's coat over his head to blind him while she pulls up the z he is standing on, causing him to land in the fireplace and burn his butt, which then causes Horace to run in pain towards Jasper sending them both into the wall, causing the roof to come down on top of them.

After the battle, Pongo and Perdita make their to the Colonel's H.Q.(a small barn not far from Hell Hall), where they are happily reunited with their puppies. They also discover that in addition to their litter of 15, Cruella had also stolen 84 other puppies and, to their horror, she was planning on having them all killed and skinned for their fur to make a coat. When the Baduns are spotted approaching the barn, they quickly thank the Colonel and his associates before leaving.

Together, the family sets off for London, trying desperatly to evade Cruella and her henchmen while also dealing with the harsh winter weather.

Eventually, the family is found by a collie who directs them to a dairy bar for food and shelter. They enter the barn hungry and exhausted and are greeted by the local cows. When the puppies start asking for food, Perdita is unsure what to do. Luckily, the cows offer to give the puppies their milk. Perdita soon falls asleep with her mate and her puppies.

The next morning, the family makes it to the small village of Dinsford where they meet a labarbor who informs them that there is a van parked in the village thats bound for London and has enough room for all the family. Unfortunatly, Cruella suddenly appears, patrolling the village in her car while her henchmen search on foot. Perdita worries about how to get past the villains until Pongo gets an idea from watching Patch and Lucky fight in a nearby soot pile. When Pongo starts rolling in the soot, Perdita immediately questions what he is doing. He then reveals his marvelous plan to her; using the soot to disguise themselves as black labradors to seek past Cruella and her underlings. When the puppies ask their mother if they should get themselves dirty in the soot, she reluctantly tells them to do as their farther says to which the pups happliy oblige.

When the family is finished disguising themselves, they make their way to the van in groups of six aided by the Labrabor. Perdita goes with one of the groups and is told to get on board by the Labrador when the engines start driving up. Unfortunately, Cruella sees through their disguise and alerts her henchmen. Pongo quickly gets the last puppy on board with the help of Perdita and they escape in the van.

Just when they think their safe, Perdita is horrified to see Cruella, now mad to the point of mental breakdown, in hot pursuit. All she and the rest of her family can do is watch in horror as Cruella tries to ram the van off road with her car. Luckily, Jasper & Horace (who were trying to ram the van themselves with their truck) accidentally collide with Cruella's car, sending them all flying into a ditch, allowing the Dalmatians to finally escape.

They eventually make it back home where they enjoy a happy reunion with their owners. Roger & Antia also decide to let them adopt the other 84 puppies. Perdita them joins in with her family and owners singing Dalmatian Plantation as the film ends.

101 Dalmatians II:Patch's London Adventure
Perdita plays a much smaller role in this direct to DVD sequel as it focuses more on Patch, one of the puppies. During the beginning, she inquires Patch on why he is sitting in front of the TV when it isn't switched on, to which he replied that he is saving his sitting spot for when his favourite show (The Thunderbolt Adventure Hour) is on. She then tells Patch that his show isn't on till dinnertime. Their conversation is interrupted when Nanny rings the dinner bell and Patch is swept away by the swarm of puppies running toward the kitchen.Later, Perdita joins her family in moving to their new Dalmatian Plantation. Perdy herself is particularly happy that they will be as far away as possible from the cluches of Cruella De Vil. She and the other Dalmatians are unaware however that they have left Patch behind. While Patch goes on a soul finding journey to meet his idol Thunderbolt and become a one of a kind wonder dog, Perdita and the rest of the family spend the day admiring their new home. It is only when Pongo and Roger see Patch in a photograph in the newspaper with Thunderbolt do they realise one of their pups is missing. Roger, Anita, Pongo & Perdita immediately head off for London with Perdy assuring Pongo that they will find their son before Cruella does.

Trivia

 * Her name is feminine form of "perditus," which means "lost" in Latin, and it also means "loss" in Italian and in Esperanto.
 * In the original book by Dodie Smith, "Perdita" was the name of a liverspotted Dalmatian that had been adopted by the Dearly family (the Radcliffe family's last name in the novel) to serve as a canine wet nurse to the puppies.