What is Pete?

Do you know who Pete is? Well, he's a Disney character that is always the bad guy or some would say, enemy of Mickey Mouse. All these while I never bothered what Pete is, and thought that he's a black bear or dog or something. The rest of Disney characters are easy to identify, eg:
Mickey & Minnie = mouse
Donald & Daisy = duck
Goofy = dog
Clarabelle = Cow

My hubby & I were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse shown from Astro Playhouse Disney Channel with William last night when my husband suddenly says, "Pete is a cat!". I was surprised by his sudden remark, and questioned him why he says that. He replied "You see ah, the rest of Mickey's friends are animals that had no problem with mouse, but Pete always have problem with Mickey. Same like cat and mouse. And checkout his ear... is a cat's ear!". Then I said "sure or not....". Few moments later, Daisy Duck in the show says "oohh... that fat cat!". Well, I guess that mystery is solved....

Now, some other things puzzles me as well when I think about:
1. why goofy can talk but pluto can't? both of them are dogs
2. why the rest can talk in proper tone, but donald has very strong duck "accent"?