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The plots are deceptively simple. Mindy is left alone with Buttons, who is charged as babysitter by her mother. Soon after, ever-curious Mindy wanders off with Buttons chasing after her. Buttons faithfully keeps her from harm, often taking the brunt of horrible abuse and injury. Somehow Mindy manages to wander back home unharmed, yet Buttons is ironically always scolded for being inattentive by Mindy's mother. However, Mindy always hugs Buttons and tells her she loves him afterwards.

The formula of the Buttons and Mindy cartoons seems to be a poke at both Lassie and Hanna-Barbera—in fact, one of the shorts, "Cat on a Hot Steel Beam," was lifted from a Tom and Jerry short featuring the cat-and-mouse duo pursuing a baby who had wandered out onto an unfinished skyscraper—and an off-model Tom and Jerry even appear in the short chasing an errant infant. This scenario was also the plot of two classic Popeye cartoons, a Fleischer and a Famous Studios remake, with a hypnotized Olive Oyl. Additionally, Mindy's remarkable luck and innocence is reminiscent of Mr. Magoo.

In several shorts, Buttons and Mindy are re-designed as Flintstones, Jetsons, and even mermaidA mermaid is a legendary creature with a female human head and torso (if it's male, it's called a merman) and the tail of a fish, which inhabits the water. Some sailors claim to have seen mermaids; what they actually saw are probably manatees. A freshwate-type characters.