The Princess and Puss are having a picnic. She struggles to open the packet of cookies and spills cookies everywhere. Then, Scruff leaps into the pond, drenching the cookies and the picnic blanket and sending a tadpole flying into the Princess's glass of water. She starts to tell him off, before noticing the the tadpole, whereupon she says, "There's an animal in my drink!".
She goes to the Admiral, who believes the pond is shark-infested and that the tadpole might be one. The Princess asks the Admiral if she can keep it, and he replies, "Yes. No. I don't know." She goes to the Maid, who tells her that the creature is not a shark, but a tadpole, and to put it back because "it'll be missing its friends". The Princess promises to be the tadpole's friend.
She then goes to the Queen, who is doubtful about the idea of tadpoles as pets, because according to her, pets are sociable and can be trained. She also points out that the Princess already has pets, but the Princess feels like Scruff and Puss aren't "exciting" enough. The Queen reluctantly tells the Princess to ask the King, so she does.
He tells her that a tadpole is a "wild animal" and needs its habitat. The Princess promises to get him one, and so the King reluctantly lets her keep the tadpole, but "only this once". However, the Princess doesn't know what a habitat is, so she goes to the Gardener. He tells her that a habitat is where an animal lives, and it has things that make the creature happy. He then gives the tadpole a bowl to live in, with stones, pond plants, and (obviously) water.
The Princess names the tadpole Taddy, and takes him into her bedroom. Meanwhile, the other pets are jealous and start doing circus tricks to try to get her attention. The narrator asks the Princess why she likes Taddy so much, and she responds that she likes making him happy. The narrator wants to know how, so the Princess replies that she replaces his pond water (and that the water sometimes contains bugs), she once found and cleaned a new rock for him, and that she would like to take him everywhere but pets aren't allowed in the kitchen (save Scruff and Puss at feeding time).
That night, Puss tries to steal Taddy, but he turns into a frog, scaring him away. The next morning, the Princess screams and frantically assembles the adults, because she thinks the frog has eaten Taddy. They explain that the creature is called a frog, and tadpoles turn into them.
Upon learning this, the Princess is very pleased that her tadpole is now a frog, and renames him Froggy. She tells the Admiral and he says, "Oh dear. Is it catching?".
At night, the Princess wants Gilbert and Froggy to be kissed goodnight as well, but the Queen refuses to kiss the latter. Then, both Froggy and the pond frogs noisily croak all night, keeping everybody awake. The Princess complains about this to the narrator the next day, and he suggests that Froggy is missing his friends and tells her about the Frog Prince. The idea of marrying a prince grosses out the Princess, so she sets him free in the pond. The episode ends with the Princess and the pets going to bed.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal:
- Puss wears a bandanna at the picnic, a top hat when he's trying to get the Princess's attention, a bandit mask when trying to steal Taddy.
- Scruff wears a tutu and nothing else, save his collar, while trying to regain the Princess's attention.
- Affection-Hating Kid: The Princess says, "Yuck!" at the idea of marrying a prince.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- In real life, tadpoles take way longer than one night to turn into frogs.
- Froggy has eyelashes. In real life, only mammals grow hair. This is especially unusual for a male cartoon animal, since usually in cartoons, males don't have eyelashes.
- The frogs croaking loudly at night is implied to be a result of Froggy and the pond frogs missing each other. In reality, this isn't a reason frogs croak— they usually croak to tell other frogs to stay away, or, in the case of the males, to attract a mate. While Froggy may have been croaking because he wanted to mate, the other frogs couldn't have been calling Froggy over to mate with them because only males croak to attract females.
- Fainting: Not really, but Puss mimes passing out when Froggy hops up to him (he's clearly faking because he's completely fine a literal second later).
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: The episode ends with the Princess and the pets going to bed.
- Incorrect Animal Noise: Downplayed. While some frogs do say, "ribbit", the ones in the UK don't. They make high-pitched croaks instead.
- Jealous Pet: When the Princess acquires Taddy, the other pets become jealous and do tricks for attention and, in Puss's case, steal him.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": The tadpole is named Taddy, and he gets renamed Froggy when he grows up.
- Mistaken for Own Murderer: When Taddy grows up, the Princess thinks the frog is a "horrible animal" who ate him.
- Plot Time: It only takes one night for Taddy to grow up, whereas in real life, it takes a lot longer.
- Shout-Out: The narrator wonders if the Princess is waiting to kiss Froggy, since that's what happens in The Frog Prince.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Inverted. Froggy is a male frog, but he still has eyelashes.
- Threatening Shark: Discussed. The Admiral seems afraid of the sharks that allegedly inhabit the pond, and he thinks that "many men have been lost at sea" due to them.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: The Princess sets Froggy free in the pond because he's too loud.
