A group of rabid dogs bounds through the wilderness and attacks Walnut Grove.
Tropes associated with this episode:
- Both Sides Have a Point: When Mary gets the idea to send their dog Bandit to warn the Garveys, Laura points out that the dogs would spot him and get him, but Mary argues it's their only chance to get help. Bandit does get chasen by one of the rabid dogs and even gets bitten by it, but makes it to the Garveys', and his injury lets them know the kids are in trouble at the Ingalls'.
- Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Mrs. Oleson apparently doesn't trust a man who chews tobacco.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Every time the dogs maul one of the farm animals, it happens offscreen.
- Heroic Dog: Bandit outruns one of the rabid dogs to seek help for Andy and the Ingalls sisters.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The wolf mother dies fighting the pack of dogs.
- Jerkass Realization: Jud Larrabee seems to have one after seeing that what had been attacking animals was rabid dogs, not the wolves Garvey was keeping in his barn, and when Andrew comments on how the wolf mother helped protect them from the dogs. It won't last...
- Mama Wolf: A literal example, when the dogs break into the barn and the wolf mother fights them to protect her cubs (and possibly the kid who kept then safe), at the cost of her life.
- Papa Wolf: When Jonathan sees that the Ingalls' dog showed up injured and that the wolves were gone, he realizes that the kids are in trouble and rushes to the Ingalls' farm, just in time to shoot the group of rabid dogs dead before they reach his son and the Ingalls sisters.
- Andrew becomes this to the wolf cubs, as when he overhears Larrabee discuss how he's joining men to put down the wolves, he rushes to the barn where they were being kept and takes them and their mother to the Ingalls' to keep them safe. And when they are cornered by the rabid dogs inside the barn, he refuses to leave them behind and doesn't go up the hay loft until he gets every one of them there in safety.
- Promoted to Parent: Two temporary examples:
- While their parents were out on a trip, Mary assumes the parent role, imposing her authority on Laura, much to the latter's annonyance.
- Andrew wants to care for the wolf cubs while their mother recovers, though his father warns him that they belong in the wild and he can't keep them forever.
- Super-Persistent Predator: The rabid dogs corner the Ingalls sisters and Andrew inside the barn, and Mary suggest that they wait until they leave. But rather than give up, they keep waiting outside until it gets dark, and then start digging into the loft, cornering the kids in the hay loft.
- Tragic Monster: Jonathan Garvey describes the dogs as this to his son the next day. They were once domestic dogs until their owners abandoned them, and because they weren't made for the wild, they became the hyper-aggressive group they saw, even worse than actual wild animals that merely hunt for food.
- Wrong for the Right Reasons:
- The mean-spirited bigot Jud Larrabee angrily confronts his old nemesis Jonathan with a dead sheep, torn to pieces by some wild predator. Larrabee suspects the wolf mother Garvey is keeping in his barn, and wants to destroy them. This is wrong, of course, as the wolf is wounded, and her cubs are far too small to kill anything. But Larrabee's hypothesis that rabid canines are the culprits turns out to be true, as wild dogs are discovered to be on the prowl in Walnut Grove.
- Mrs Oleson apparently dislikes Jonathan Garvey because she doesn't trust a man who chews tobbaco. As the audience knows, Jonathan is a good man, but chewing tobbaco is indeed an unhealthy habit, though people didn't know at the time.
