A cat tries to catch a canary, but he is stopped by Granny and she threatens to throw him out in the rain. So the cat tries to pull some devious tricks to get the bird, but he keeps getting interrupted by the canary's whistle. The canary at one point even gets the cat to whistle by showing him a picture of a pretty girl. The canary even taunts the cat while flying to & from his cage; but the cat was waiting for him and the canary escapes. So in desperation, the cat put ear muffs on Granny while she was sleeping. The canary tries whistling but to no avail, so then he makes all sorts of noises before hitting the cat with a wall ironing board, allowing the canary to remove the earmuffs from Granny. Finally, the cat has had enough, so he let himself out in the rain. The canary was victorious, but his victory wouldn't last as Granny woke up and is somehow angry. So a frightened canary flew out in the rain too. Left all alone in a barrel with the cat, the canary asks the audience if they were interested in a homeless cat and canary.
It features a cat-bird pairing before the Sylvester, and Tweety cartoons.
The canary is a prototype Tweety who would appear in 42 cartoons in the Golden Age.
The cartoon's original opening and ending titles, were cut when reissued in 1947, however, the original titles are known to exist, as shown on the image on the infobox.
This episode is possibly a prototype of "Tweetie Pie" (Coincidentally both "Tweetie Pie" and "The Cagey Canary" were written by Michael Maltese).
This was one of the three cartoons that Tex Avery planned to make in 1941, but were completed by Bob Clampett in the end due to his departure. The other two cartoons are "Aloha Hooey" and "Crazy Cruise".
In this cartoon, Proto-Sylvester has brown fur as opposed to black and white fur as in other appearances.
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