Martha appears and explains that the vocabulary words are about illness, while T.D. is apparently sick. Then, the episode proper begins, with Martha, Skits, T.D., and a droopy-looking Helen at the park. Martha wants to play fetch, but Helen is feeling unwell and has a sore throat.
When Helen and her dogs get home, Mariella serves her corn soup and puts her to bed. Once she's in bed, Truman comes over and tries to diagnose her with a medical book, but fails, thinking she has gout. Mariella enters and explains that it's laryngitis, then that she'll have to run errands for an hour. Truman suggests that Helen is a werewolf or has scurvy, but Mariella sends him away. Then, she leaves with Jake.
Martha then blames herself, wrongly believing that the game of fetch somehow made Helen sick, and wants to cure her. Skits suggests grass (which is what dogs use for nausea), but Martha points out that Helen is a human. Skits then comes up with another idea, which Martha approves of, so she calls a delivery guy to send over a bunch of candy and a meat pizza.
Then, the phone rings, and it's Helen's school shrink, Mr. Blaine. He asks why Helen is absent from school, and Martha explains that Helen has laryngitis "or maybe she's a werewolf". Mr. Blaine asks Martha if she's a doctor, and she replies, "No, this is the dog". Then, she hangs up because the doorbell rang. It is the delivery guy, with the pizza and candy, only the door is locked, Helen is asleep, and Martha can't find any money, so he turns to leave. Martha explains that Helen is sick, so he decides to stay as long as he gets paid somehow. Martha tells him to go through the doggie door to get money from the cookie jar, so he tries, but gets stuck.
Meanwhile, Truman, while trying to determine if he needs glasses, sees the delivery guy and thinks he's a burglar. Chimney sweeps arrive, and then Mr. Blaine comes over, thinking Martha is a woman who's delusional and just thinks she's a dog, and to add to the chaos, Martha calls the fire department to get the delivery guy, while Truman calls the police about the "burglar". Mr. Blaine shows up and starts talking to Martha, trying to cure her "delusion", while the chimney sweeps climb onto the roof, causing Truman to mistake them all for more burglars.
Mr. Blaine wants to talk to Martha face-to-face, so she has him climb a ladder to the window. However, before he can see her and find out the truth, he steps on a toy firetruck and rolls away. Meanwhile, the fire department and police show up, and Mr. Blaine crashes into Truman's house, with the ladder breaking his window.
Danny drives past on the bus and sees the chaos, so he stops the bus and decides to take a look. Helen wakes up from her nap and her voice has gone back to normal, and Mariella and Jake return and see all the chaos. Helen wants to play with Martha and Skits, but is surprised to see all the goings-on outside.
Danny pays the delivery guy, Truman apologises for calling the police (but Danny reassures him that it isn't his fault), and T.D. goes back to the park with Helen and the dogs. Martha apologises for her actions and Helen tells her to ask permission first. Thus, all is solved... except for the chimney sweeps, who are stuck on the roof.
This episode provides examples of
- Afraid of Doctors: Implied when T.D. in the intro sounds dubious at the idea of a doctor.
- Alliterative List: Martha's list of words involving getting better are "rest", "recuperate", and "recover".
- An Aesop: Ask an unwell person if they need anything first instead of taking matters into your own hands (well, paws, since Martha's a dog)
- Artistic License – Medicine: Truman's medical book lists lycanthropy as an actual disease. While there's a condition called "clinical lycanthropy" that makes one under the delusion that they've become an animal, the lycanthropy listed is the mythological curse that makes one a werewolf.
- Bread Eggs Milk: Martha lists things she likes about being a dog: fetching, rolling in the grass, and drinking out of the toilet.
- Comically Missing the Point: When T.D. says that there's only one remedy for a sore throat, Helen asks, "What's that?". T.D. responds by defining the word "remedy".
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: If Helen's mom had just called the school telling them her daughter wouldn't be attending, almost the whole mess with the school counselor showing up to the house and then everything escalating from there could have been avoided (well, except for the pizza guy getting stuck in the doggy door and Truman calling the police)
- Delayed Reaction: It takes Truman a few seconds to register that a man trying to squeeze through the doggie door is unusual.
- Delusions of Doghood: Discussed when Mr. Blaine thinks that Martha is a madwoman who thinks she's a dog.
- False Cause: Helen came down with laryngitis while playing fetch, which causes Martha to think that playing fetch made Helen sick.
- Grossout Fakeout: Martha thinks "recuperate" means "throw up".
- Help, I'm Stuck!: The delivery guy gets stuck in the doggie door.
- Last-Second Joke Problem: The episode ends with Helen recovered from her laryngitis, the delivery guy who'd been stuck in the doggie door unstuck, Truman realising that Mr. Blaine, the chimney sweeps, and the fire department aren't burglars, and Mr. Blaine, the fire department, and the police now out of the way... only the chimney sweeps are stuck on the roof because the ladder was taken away.
- Lost Voice Plot: Downplayed. Helen gets laryngitis, but she can still talk; she just sounds hoarse.
- Mistaken for Insane: When Mr. Blaine hears Martha call herself a dog, he believes she's a delusional woman.
- Mistaken for Thief: When Truman sees the man trying to squeeze through the doggie door, he thinks he's a burglar, then when Mr. Blaine shows up, he thinks he's a second burglar, and when the chimney sweeps show up, he thinks they're burglars too.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Martha feels guilty when she thinks she made Helen sick.
- Scary Science Words: Martha is concerned when Mariella uses the word "recuperate" and seems to think it means "throw up".Martha: "It sounds like something that happens when you're sick, y'know, like, 'Don't go in there; I've just recuperated all over the rug'."
- The Shrink: Mr. Blaine describes himself as a "school counsellor", and he seems to be a practicing psychologist, judging by his attempts to psychoanalyse Martha.
- Sick Episode: Helen spends the whole episode in bed with laryngitis.
- Soup Is Medicine: Mariella thinks the best sore-throat remedy is corn soup and serves some to Helen when she has laryngitis.
- Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: Martha lists drinking out of the toilet as a good thing about being a dog.
- You Can Talk?: When the delivery guy meets Martha, he says, "Whoa, are you a talking dog!?".
