Buttons and Mindy

Buttons and Mindy is a cartoon segment on Animaniacs.

Buttons
Buttons, a heroic Lassie-like dog (voiced by Frank Welker) and the accident-prone toddler (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) he is sworn to protect, even at the cost of severe injury to himself. The comedy of their shorts is based on the premise that, no matter what, Mindy always ends up exactly where her mother leaves her at the start of the skit, having narrowly avoided death a half dozen times, while the heroic (and severely battered) Buttons gets berated for some minor damage he or Mindy causes (e.g. trampling a flower bed) while trying to keep Mindy alive. The characters of this cartoon are similar to Baby Herman and Roger Rabbit. Wakko's Wish shows the only known time in which Mindy referred to her mother as "Mom" and Buttons received a reward (a stack of T-Bone Steaks) from Mindy's Mom rather than being scolded.

Mindy
Mindy is the little girl that Buttons must watch. She appears in the cartoon skit known as "Buttons and Mindy." Her mother always leaves her alone in the house with Buttons. Mindy always calls her mother "lady" and her father "Mr. Man". Mindy's curiosity aways gets her and Buttons into very interesting situations. Mindy was voiced by Nancy Cartwright.