Prunella Deegan

Prunella Deegan is a 4th grader who lives in Elwood City. She is an avid reader and, like her sister Rubella, is interested in the supernatural.

Physical appearance
Prunella is a tall, slender anthropomorphic poodle with curly auburn hair and black dot eyes. In almost all of her appearances, she is shown wearing a short turquoise dress. She occasionally has whites for eyes when she expresses surprise about things happening (although in the books, she was sometimes illustrated with visible whites around her eyes as well as the other characters, who were randomly drawn to have white or black eyes). During formal occasions, she wears a light blue dress with white strings that she ties together. From season 16 onwards, her hair has become a brighter red color.

Personality
Prunella is fairly smart, superstitious, a little bit selfish, and at times can be a bit of a snob. She often thinks that she is better than everybody at everything just because she is one year older than the third graders.

Prunella likes to tell the 3rd graders stories of when she was in Mr. Ratburn's class, though she tends to exaggerate. For example, in "Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn", she tells the kids going into Mr. Ratburn's class that Mr. Ratburn eats nails for breakfast. She has also told kids other stories that they believe, but later they figure out that what she tells them is far from their actual experience of 3rd grade.

Prunella can be influenced by Muffy, even though they do not hang out with each other very often. For example, she hates kickball because she doesn't want to get her shoes dirty and she desires the finest clothes. She even acts like Muffy, like when she wanted new, hip pants called "Flash Pants".

She is also known to have a compulsive hoarding disorder as seen in the episode "Prunella the Packrat", where she tries to save items she believes are important to her when she is told to clean out her closet.

Interests
Prunella is a major Henry Skreever fan along with her best friend Marina. They both have all of the books, loads of Henry Skreever merchandise, and even have Henry Skreever themed slumber parties.

Along with Henry Skreever, she enjoys fortune-telling (such as using a crystal ball, reading I Ching, You Ching and playing cootie catcher), yoga, and paranormal phenomena. However, her predictions are usually not accurate. Instead, she incorporates the prediction with an object in the room she is in.

At school, Prunella takes shop class, plays trombone in the school band, and competes on the Lakewood Elementary baseball team. She served on the decorating committee of the Earth Day Fair and paints sets for plays at school. All in all, she is very active in school activities.

Family
Prunella lives in Elwood City with her mother and older teenage sister Rubella. Prunella has a father who lives with her, but it is assumed that he works a lot because he is never home. He appeared momentarily in the episode "The Chips are Down" at Rubella and Binky's ballet recital. She is nicknamed "Pruney" by her mother.

Friends
Although Prunella is in fourth grade, she is usually friends with the third graders but had a few fourth-grade friends at her parties in "Misfortune Teller" and "Prunella Gets it Twice."
 * Marina Datillo: Prunella's best friend. They both like Henry Skreever and they play games related to it at each other's houses.
 * Muffy: Prunella's second best friend. Even if they don't hang out much Prunella acts a lot like Muffy sometimes, such as shopping (usually for new clothes). Prunella was once jealous when she didn't get to buy flash pants that Muffy bought and enjoyed. It is revealed in the episode Sue Ellen Moves In that at first they hated each other but eventually learned to get along.
 * Francine: They don't hang out much and they don't share a lot in common, even though they are friends. Francine once bought her a second Polly Locket for her 10th birthday in "Prunella Gets it Twice", and she also cheated Francine into thinking Arthur was in love with her in "Arthur and the Square Dance."
 * Brain: Prunella and Brain are both smart but they rarely hang out with each other. However, Prunella did manage to keep Brain's secret of being held back in kindergarten in "Brain's Shocking Secret". In "The Blizzard," it could be implied that their mothers are friends because Brain just happens to be at Prunella's house during most of the episode.
 * Jenna: In Arthur Goes Crosswire, she is seen with Jenna throughout the episode.

Appearances

 * Specials
 * Arthur's Perfect Christmas
 * Arthur - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
 * D.W. and the Beastly Birthday
 * Season 1
 * Arthur's Eyes 10101
 * Francine's Bad Hair Day 10102
 * Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn 10201
 * Arthur's Spelling Trubble 10202
 * Arthur's Pet Business 10501
 * Locked in the Library! (Cameo) 10601
 * Arthur Goes to Camp 10701
 * Arthur Babysits 10901
 * Francine Frensky, Superstar 11002
 * Arthur's Baby (Cameo) 11101
 * Arthur and the True Francine (Cameo) 11402
 * Arthur and the Crunch Cereal Contest (Cameo) 11601
 * Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper (Cameo) 11702
 * Sue Ellen Moves In 12101
 * Team Trouble 12202
 * Bully for Binky 12301
 * Misfortune Teller 12302
 * Arthur Cleans Up 12502
 * D.W.'s Blankie 12701
 * The Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club 12802
 * Stolen Bike 12902
 * Arthur's New Year's Eve 13002
 * Season 2
 * Arthur Meets Mister Rogers 20101
 * Arthur Makes a Movie 20401
 * Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider 20502
 * Buster Baxter, Cat Saver (Cameo) 20601
 * Arthur's TV Free Week 20701
 * Night Fright 20702
 * The Big Blow-Up 20802
 * The Short, Quick Summer 20902
 * D.W. Goes to Washington (Dream sequence only) 21001
 * Arthur's Mystery Envelope 21002
 * Buster Hits the Books (Cameo) 21102
 * Arthur and the Square Dance 21202
 * Water and the Brain 21301
 * Grandma Thora Appreciation Day (Cameo) 21501
 * Fern's Slumber Party 21502
 * Love Notes for Muffy 21601
 * D.W. Blows the Whistle (Cameo) 21602
 * D.W.'s Very Bad Mood (Cameo) 21802
 * Finders Key-pers 21902
 * Sue Ellen's Little Sister 22002
 * Season 3
 * Buster's Back 30101
 * The Ballad of Buster Baxter (Cameo) 30102
 * Arthur Goes Crosswire 30201
 * Dad's Dessert Dilemma 30702
 * Popular Girls 30801
 * Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival 31102
 * Arthur's Dummy Disaster 31301
 * Arthur and D.W. Clean Up (Cameo) 31501
 * The Long, Dull Winter 31502
 * Season 4
 * Muffy's New Best Friend
 * The Fright Stuff (Cameo) 40302
 * The Blizzard 40501
 * Prunella Gets it Twice 40602
 * To Beat or Not to Beat 40702
 * 1001 Dads (Cameo) 40801
 * Prunella's Prediction 40802
 * That's a Baby Show! (Doesn't speak) 41002
 * Season 5
 * Double Dare 50102
 * The World Record (Cameo) 50401
 * You Are Arthur 50502
 * Francine Goes to War 50602
 * Bitzi's Beau 50802
 * Season 6
 * Best of the Nest 60102
 * Buster's Sweet Success
 * Prunella's Special Edition 60301
 * Season 7
 * Francine's Split Decision 70201
 * Don't Ask Muffy 70302
 * Elwood City Turns 100! (Cameo)
 * Jenna's Bedtime Blues 70602
 * Prunella Sees the Light 70901
 * April 9th 710
 * Season 8
 * Fernfern and the Secret of Moose Mountain 80201
 * Arthur's Snow Biz 80301
 * Bugged 80302
 * Vomitrocious 80501
 * Muffy's Art Attack 80801
 * Season 9
 * Lights, Camera... Opera! 90501
 * Three's a Crowd 90701
 * A is for Angry (Cameo) 90702
 * Buster the Myth Maker 90902
 * Season 10
 * Happy Anniversary (cameo) 1001
 * Feeling Flush (cameo) 1004a
 * Arthur Changes Gears 1006b
 * Do You Speak George? 1009a
 * What's Cooking? 1010a
 * Season 11
 * Germophobia (cameo) 1101b
 * Prunella Packs It In 1103b
 * Brain's Shocking Secret 1104b
 * Dancing Fools (cameo) 1106b
 * Francine's Pilfered Paper (cameo) 1108a
 * Buster Gets Real (cameo) 1108b
 * Spoiled Rotten! (cameo) 1109b
 * Season 12
 * For the Birds
 * Matchmaker, Match Breaker
 * Season 13
 * MacFrensky 130401
 * Prunella and the Disappointing Ending 130502
 * Fernlets by Fern (cameo) 130801
 * Prunella and the Haunted Locker 130802
 * Looking for Bonnie (Fantasy) 130101
 * Season 14
 * All the Rage (Cameo) 140802
 * Season 15
 * Fifteen (Cameo) 150101
 * I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Cameo) 150201
 * Buster's Secret Admirer 150301
 * Cents-less (Cameo) 150401
 * Prunella the Packrat 150701
 * Muffy's Classy Classics Club (Cameo) 150801
 * Season 16
 * Get Smart (Cameo)
 * Brain's Biggest Blunder 160702
 * Season 17
 * Speak Up, Francine! 170601 (cameo)
 * Season 18
 * Surprise!
 * Best Wishes 180401
 * The Tardy Tumbler 180402
 * Whip. Mix. Blend.
 * Season 19
 * Sue Ellen Adds It Up 190201
 * The Last Day (mentioned)
 * Season 20
 * Cereal 200202
 * Prunella's Tent of Portent 200601
 * Season 21
 * Brain and the Time Capsule 210102
 * Sue Ellen & the Last Page (cameo) 210302
 * Muffy Misses Out (cameo) 210401
 * Arthur Takes A Stand (cameo) 210402

Trivia

 * It is revealed in Arthur's Spelling Trubble that Prunella is a great speller, but soon lost the crown to Arthur.
 * Her surname, Deegan, was taken from one of the writer's last names, Jacqui Deegan.
 * She has been seen erroneously in Nigel Ratburn's class several times, due to the fact that she was in his class the previous school year.
 * She sometimes is erroneously referred to as a rat, despite the shape of her ears and lack of whiskers.
 * Prunella's bedtime is 10:00 PM.