Kitty craves frog legs!note
Anne wants to keep a feline-looking caterpillar as a pet, but she'll have to keep it a secret from Hop Pop.
Tropes:
- All Animals Are Dogs: Domino II acts largely like a cat, including purring and meowing. Subverted, however, after Domino II achieves her imago stage - although she still behaves like a cat, she treats the frogs like prey, playing with them like a cat plays with a mouse.
- Bait-and-Switch: Sprig offers Anne an ugly replica doll of Domino II, a doll so ugly that Sprig admits it's too unsightly and offers to get rid of it... only for Anne to embrace it and tearfully say she loves it.
- Cuteness Proximity: Anne squeals when she gets a good look at Domino II.
- Continuity Nod: It's not directly stated, by one is made to "Cane Crazy" with Hop Pop looking at all the dishes Anne is supposed to wash as punishment for breaking his cane.
- Don't Be Ridiculous: After Anne suggests that a crashing noise came from a "basement ghost", Hop Pop quotes the trope name and says "Basement ghosts don't sound anything like that."
- The Dreaded: Coastal kill-a-pillars are feared by frogs due to their carnivorous habits.
- Foreshadowing: When Domino II bites Sprig's leg, Anne passes it off as "playful biting". Sprig thinks that she's tasting him, which is probably more accurate as she later turns into a frog predator.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Anne declares that Domino is irreplaceable... but now she has a replacement in Domino II.
- Killer Rabbit: Domino II is an adorable cat-like caterpillar. Problem is, she's the larval form of a frog predator.
- Mundane Object Amazement: Anne presents a toy mouse to get Domino II to follow them home, Sprig is just as fascinated by it as Domino II.Sprig: I want it. Give it to me.
- Non-Mammalian Hair: Lampshaded by Anne when Sprig's hat is cut and reveals a tuft of orange hair.
- Noodle Incident: Hop Pop goes on and on about the family's previous pet, a spider named Charlie Bigbottom.
- No Sympathy: Subverted. While Hop Pop was firm about "no pets", he understands Anne's pain in letting Domino II go. When she apologizes for putting everyone in danger and explains she was missing her cat, he confesses that he misses Charlie Bigbottom, the family spider.
- Oh, Crap!: When Sprig is describing Domino II to Hop Pop, he freaks out:Hop Pop: Wait. A black caterpillar with white spots?!
Sprig: (Uneasily) Yes... Sensing something is wrong. - Ocular Gushers: Hop Pop lets out a really good one at the end of the episode. Throughout the episode, he was bemoaning about a pet spider they used to have, but then when Anne says she hopes the Plantars understand why she was so desperate for something to take Domino's place:Hop Pop: Understand? Understand?! (beat) I MISS CHARLIE BIGBOTTOM WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL! WAAAAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAA....!!!!
- Pet Baby Wild Animal: Anne adopts a caterpillar that looks like her cat Domino and names her Domino II. Unfortunately, she transforms into a frog-eating monstrosity that almost devours the Plantars.
- Poor Communication Kills: If Anne had bothered to come clean to Hop Pop about Domino II from the get-go, he would've sooner identified that Domino II was a coastal kill-a-pillar, a predator of frogs. Not only would it have saved the Plantars the near-death experience, but it would've spared Anne the pain of letting Domino II go.
- Pupating Peril: It is later revealed that the creature is a "coastal kill-a-pillar" which soon after pupates into a monstrous moth-like creature, and tries to eat the Plantars.
- Replacement Goldfish: Anne adopted Domino II so she could have a version of her first cat to make her feel less lonely. It's deconstructed when it turns out Domino II eventually morphs into a frog-eating moth monster.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Domino II, before she metamorphoses... and, honestly, even afterward.
- Roundabout Shot: The flashback begins with Anne and Domino II dancing and getting this particular shot.
- Secret Pet Plot: Anne encounters a caterpillar who resembles Domino, her pet cat back on Earth. However, Anne has to keep Domino II's existence a secret from her current guardian, Hop Pop. The twist comes in when the rapidly growing Domino II turns out to be a frog predator.
- Shown Their Work: Wasps, which were attacking Domino 2 when Anne and Sprig found her, do attack caterpillars in real life to lay their eggs in them.
- Status Quo Is God: Instead of becoming a new member of the family, Domino II has to go back into the wild so she doesn't harm the Plantar family, much to Anne's regret.
- Visual Pun: The caterpillar looks and behaves like a house-cat.
