This article is about the character from Kim Possible. For other characters, see Rufus.
Rufus is a naked mole rat, the pet friend and soul brother of Ron Stoppable, and the tritagonist of the Kim Possible franchise.
Rufus lives almost full-time in Ron's pants pocket and accompanies him everywhere. For an animal, he is exceptionally intelligent, but average by human standards, and is capable of vocalizations approximating limited speech. It is unclear if his "speech" is actual or a case of "audience filter" and not understandable to anyone other than Ron himself.
He was bought by Ron at Smarty Mart, during Ron's quest for a pet which would not aggravate his father's allergies to animal fur.
Rufus is generally portrayed as pink, small, light, and very agile, which proves useful time and again. He shares several things in common with his owner: his love of Bueno Nacho food (and subsequently, the Naco), his ability to eat with practically no regard for the food he is eating, sharing Ron's disgust for others, and an overall laid-back, casual attitude. However, unlike Ron, he has been known to abandon this attitude at crucial times, often using quicker thinking than his owner.
Rufus tends to display frustration with Ron when he uses him in an embarrassing way or fails to give Rufus (or others) due credit. However, he has generally stuck by Ron in virtually every situation, and though he does not have the same fear, has the same overall dislike for monkeys. Rufus also possesses mystical monkey powers as he got his when he was in Ron's pocket, but never using them beyond displaying a greater degree of mastery of Yamanouchi ninja training than Ron, as well as once controlling the Lotus Blade. In the episode "Oh No! Yono!", he was the first one to be turned into a statue by Yono the Destroyer but was subsequently turned back.
Rufus likes romance, especially when it involves Kim and Ron. Almost every time Kim and Ron are romanticizing, he always gets emotional in a happy way. This is also apparent the other way around; if something comes in between Kim and Ron, he either gets angry, jealous or sad, depending on the situation. For example, when the synthodrone Eric charmed Kim, Rufus became angry and jealous. And when Kim and Ron officially became a couple, he was the one who pushed them together to the dance floor, and watched with Monique as they kissed the first time, with a big smile of happiness.
Physical appearance[]
Rufus is a small, naked mole-rat at a height of about 4 inches tall. He has no hair and is completely pink. Buck teeth and whiskers protrude from his mouth and face. When Ron first bought him, Rufus' appearance more resembled that of an actual naked mole-rat: being wrinkled, eyes barely open, and considerably smaller.
Rufus was a special guest star on the Lilo & Stitch: The Series crossover episode "Rufus", where he was mistaken for Experiment 607 (Launch) by Jumba Jookiba. Rufus, of course, could not be Launch, as Ron was about twelve years old when he bought Rufus, while the experiments had only arrived at Earth about a year prior to the episode's events. Stitch confirmed the accusation false when he sensed Rufus wasn't his "cousin".
Rufus appears in the live-action film with Nancy Cartwright reprising her favorite role. A reboot of the animated series, Ron first meets Rufus in a science lab, where he is in a terrarium for naked mole rats, and adopts him as his pet. This is, however, out of the canon because in A Sitch in Time, Ron bought Rufus at Smarty Mart when he was a preteen.
He is the pet and friend of Ron Stoppable, and almost all the time he travels in Ron's pant pocket. He agrees with Ron with almost everything, showing this through his actions, when Ron comments something.
Kim is Rufus' friend and can be considered a sidekick along with Ron. Kim acknowledges Rufus' talents as a great help, and she protects him when Ron is unable to, showing she cares about him about as much as she cares about Ron.
Eric, Dr. Drakken's synthodrone meant to charm Kim and drive a wedge between her and Ron, became one of Rufus' greatest enemies. While at first Rufus seemed to like him, when he called naked mole rat cool, he began to despise him, when he and Kim grew close. After his true colors were revealed, he openly declared that naked mole rat is gross. This is what prompted Rufus to destroy him by puncturing his leg.
Debutante, Camille Leon's hairless cat, playfully adores Rufus. Even though it seems to be a one-sided love, at the end credits of the episode "Trading Faces", Rufus and Debutante are both seen dining at a fancy restaurant, but Rufus seemed a little uneasy about it. In "Chasing Rufus", their relationship becomes closer, as they expressed regret for separating to return to their respectful owners.
Rufus originated from an earlier television series concept from Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. He was to be one of several characters in a series set in a petting zoo with the lead star being a platypus named Duck Williams. Rufus was then switched over to a show that focused solely on a colony of mole rats before getting recycled in Kim Possible as Ron's pet and sidekick.
Rufus was named after Ron's imaginary friend in preschool. He was "very big".
Aside from Ron understanding him, it is unclear whether Rufus is actually able to speak words, or if the vocalizations are a production trick known as "perception filter" for the sake of the audience. This technique is often underscored in other franchises, where animals speak clearly between themselves, but then briefly shown from the perspective of humans as only making animal sounds.
Rufus has a few links to otherwise unconnected Disney characters. He shares the same name as Penny's tabby cat in The Rescuers, and Timon, the meerkat in The Lion King, was originally meant to be of the same species as him.
In A Sitch in Time, despite being with the time-lost Kim and Ron, Rufus had a sizable number of progeny, strongly implying that he has already procreated; a lesser-assumed idea is that he was cloned, explaining the future Rufus descendants' worship of him. They refer to him as Rufus Prime, although, given the social nature of mole rat society, it may not be so surprising after all.
In the above movie, when Rufus is asked by his descendants on what the meaning of life is, Rufus replies, "Cheese!", which prompts one Rufus to tell another, "You owe me a buck."
According to the show's creators, Rufus' name is an ironic pun on the name of the naked mole rat's natural enemy, the Rufous beaked snake.
Rufus has Mystical Monkey Powers that he received in "Monkey Fist Strikes" because he was presumably in Ron's pants pocket when Ron became endowed with these powers, and Rufus was imbued with his own at that time. If he has some level of control over them, it may explain why he can hold his own in a fight and bite through things that a naked mole rat would normally be unable to bite through. However, in A Sitch in Time, he does so even before he gets these powers.
