Blythe steps into The Littlest Pet Shop to hear Mrs. Twombly speak to Raul over the phone that he has to call in sick. Overhearing the conversation, Blythe volunteers to step in as a substitute groomer—she has never done any actual grooming work, but she has worked with her dolls' hair when she was younger and proud of it. With no one else to turn to, Mrs. Twombly accepts Blythe and tells her that there is only one client, but a whopper of one: Zoe Trent.
Later, an art critic named Morgan Payne stops by to stock up on pet supplies. He rants to Mrs. Twombly about the sorry state of the art world when he marvels at paint splotches on the windows of the day camp room. Mrs. Twombly tells him that it's the work of Minka, and he leaves with his soul rejuvenated. Minka hears what's going on and dreams of stardom in the fine arts.
Blythe steps into the day camp room and informs Zoe that she will groom her. Zoe immediately asks if Blythe has any grooming experience. Blythe says no, to Zoe's dread.
With Minka being the new center of attention among the pets, everyone starts trying to discern the meaning of her window splotches. They argue and bicker over it as Minka retreats elsewhere and quietly says that she only did it for fun.
In another room, Blythe gets to work trimming Zoe's fur. She gets so into it that she drifts off into a rapid-fire monologue and cuts off far more from Zoe than she should have, leaving extremely uneven fur and even some bare spots of skin. It is then that Blythe remembers that while she did well with her human dolls, the same could not be said about her animal dolls, with her having ruined their appearance in much the same way as she did Zoe. Adding to Blythe's worry is that Zoe's owners are going to bring her to a dog show that afternoon, Zoe unable to see how "beautiful" Blythe has made her. Zoe goes looking for a mirror, and Blythe has to stop her.
Russell has taken up the spot of Minka's agent for her art career, but before he can say anything much, all of the other pets gather by the armchair for a meeting. They decide that Minka will need to produce a lot more artwork to become a success, and they push her into higher productivity. Minka quickly cracks under pressure, and she is unable to create anything.
Zoe eventually finds a mirror, and despite Blythe lunging at her to grab it away, Zoe sees herself anyway and howls in shock. Blythe apologizes profusely, but Zoe faints. Mrs. Twombly hears the howling and comes over, so Blythe wraps Zoe in blankets and passes her off as getting a spa treatment. Zoe wakes up and, figuring what's going on, tells Blythe that it'd be easier if Blythe just admitted to Mrs. Twombly. Blythe says she'll think of something.
Minka is still stuck in front of the canvas painting at nothing in particular, having mentally shut down. Despite attempts by the other pets to divert her attention, nothing seems to work. Pepper sees Blythe run by and asks for her help, but Blythe says she's too busy and goes back into the grooming room. After several attempts to hide the results of Blythe's grooming, she eventually creates a holographic projector from junk in the closet. Unfortunately, it only works on that one location.
Even tossing things at Minka does not cause her to budge. Penny proposes that they got too caught up with trying to ride on Minka's coattails of potential fame that they never thought if Minka might not want to be famous. Russell confronts Minka alone and tells her to forget about what anyone else says and just do her art as she sees fit and at her own pace. This gets through to Minka, and she snaps out of her catatonia.
John and Clarissa, Zoe's owners, arrive at The Littlest Pet Shop and ask to see Zoe. Minka, back to normal, sees Zoe's condition, as well as John and Clarissa coming in to pick up Zoe, and dashes off. Minka brings in purple, lavender, and pink paints and makes a quick fix to Zoe's appearance, and she looks better than ever. The overjoyed couple take Zoe to the dog show as Blythe tells Minka that it's weird she didn't get in trouble. At the dog show, Zoe takes 1st place, but as the judge pets Zoe on the head, the paint gets stuck to her hand. Zoe sneezes, removing the rest of the paint from her body, and Zoe winds up looking dreadful again as John faints into Clarissa's hands.
This episode contains examples of (YMMV emtries go here):
- Affectionate Nickname: John refers to Zoe at one point as his "little Zo-Zo."
- All Just a Dream: After Zoe recovers from fainting, she thinks Blythe's bad job at grooming was just a dream.
- Anti-Gravity Hair: Catatonic Minka's ponytails point diagonally upwards.
- Artistic Licence – Biology: Zoe's bare skin is a similar beige to Blythe. A dog's actual skin color is dark gray to black.
- Bad Hair Day: For Zoe
- Big "NO!": As Blythe leaps at Zoe to stop her from obtaining a mirror for the second time.
- Camp Straight: John
- Captain Oblivious: John and Clarissa figure out from Mrs. Twombly and Blythe speaking that Blythe messed up grooming Zoe. Mrs. Twombly, on the other hand, interprets Blythe as being extremely confident.
- Chekhov's Gun: The words "art emergency" initially referred to Minka unable to paint. It is later used to refer to Blythe's screw-up with Zoe.
- Chekhov's Gunman: A few background characters in the art exhibit in Minka's Imagine Spot appear in later episodes, such as Mary Frances, Esteban, the storefront tortoise, and some of the background dogs on Terriers and Tiaras.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Raul is never seen at all for the entirety of the series, despite him supposedly working at the Littlest Pet Shop.
- Creepy Doll: The end results of young Blythe's makeovers to her dolls, accompanied by "Psycho" Strings.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Pepper's Imagine Spot.
- Faint in Shock: Zoe mentions she may faint from seeing how terrible her haircut is. John also faints in Clarissa's arms twice, when he hears Blythe only gave haircuts to her dolls and when he sees Zoe's bald spots at the pet show.
- Foreshadowing: The flashback of young Blythe giving her dolls haircuts ends before she gives one to a dog doll, hinting at the reveal that her haircuts weren't always “pretty”.
- Heroic BSoD: Subverted with Minka, she appears to freeze up and refuses to respond to anything when the others try to make her paint. It's implied she was faking it so they would stop trying to force her to paint for money.
- Hypocritical Humor: Blythe wonders out loud how a girl can talk so much and cut hair at the same time—as she's doing exactly that. It works out as well as one might expect out of someone who has never done both at once before.
- Literal-Minded: When Russell asks Minka if they can talk, she points out that they're both capable of speech.
- Once More, with Clarity: When Blythe tells Mrs. Twombly about when she did her dolls' hair, a flashback shows them all looking beautiful. After she butchers Zoe's hair, however, she remembers how the human dolls were fine, but the animal dolls always looked horrible after she was finished with them.
- Prehensile Tail: Pepper carries a tray of fruits with her tail.
- Punny Name: Mr. Payne is a pain in the neck to deal with.
- Robo Cam: Minka when she scans the store front in Act 3.
- Shout-Out: In her Imagine Spot, Minka has the hair and glasses of Andy Warhol.
- One of Minka's works later shown in that Imagine Spot is a self-portrait in the style of Roy Lichtenstein.
- Squee: Blythe emits one when she finds out she gets to groom Zoe.
- Stealth Insult: From Minka this time—she knows better than to make a Karma Houdini out of Blythe.Blythe: I do feel kind of weird that I didn't get into trouble for what I did to Zoe.Minka: Oh, don't worry. You will!
- Take That!: In addition to the whole B-story being one at modern art, Vinnie wonders if he can sell "air paintings," likely referring to blank canvases that have been sold at high prices at galleries.
- Traumatic Haircut: The entire A-Plot. Blythe accidentally cuts chunks of Zoe's fur off and tries to cover it up.
- Twitchy Eye: Blythe's eye twitches when Zoe asks if she can look in the mirror at her awful haircut.
