Bill the Cat, or
Bill D. Cat, is a fictional
cat appearing in the works of
cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, beginning with the
comic strip Bloom County in the 1980s and continuing in
Outland and
Opus in the following decades. Bill also appeared in some of Breathed's illustrated children's books, including
A Wish for Wings That Work, which was also made into an animated
Christmas television special, and also on
greeting cards and other sundry
merchandise. The cat's most frequent spoken sentiments are "Ack!" and "Thbbft!", unlike most other animals (and children) in Breathed's work, who not only can speak
English, but have advanced vocabularies. The former is a result of his regularly choking on
hairballs, the latter sound an approximation of the "
raspberry".