Martha and Truman are watching a cop show on TV, and when the commercial break starts, Martha says that the criminal will inevitably be caught, since police always catch criminals. Then, she says that the police caught her "back when [she] was robbing stores". She then leaves for the park, but then Truman stops her and demands to know if she actually robbed stores. It turns out she did in fact rob a store, plus a museum. She says she plans to someday write her autobiography, and Truman offers to help.
She allows it, so long as he helps her scare ducks, then he has her talk while he writes. The story begins with Martha as a puppy in the dog pound. Several people considered adopting her, only to change their minds. She couldn't speak back then, but she already had her name. When she's sad about not having an owner, Kazuo cheers her up by telling her about what job she may have in the future.
Then, the past Lorraines came (Daniel and Mariella with a six-year-old Helen) wanting a cat. Mariella sees an orange cat, but Helen sees Martha and wants to adopt her. However, Mariella thinks dogs are too high-maintenance, and the Lorraines leave with no pets. Then, a man and a woman arrive at the shelter and the woman (Carlotta Bumblecrumb) wants a dog the size of a shoebox. She wants to know if Martha can be trained, and suspiciously claims that she wants to squeeze Martha through a hole, before changing her mind and saying that it's because she built a doghouse out of a shoebox. Kazuo shoos Carlotta out, claiming that Martha hasn't had her shots.
That night, Martha has a sleepless night and Helen tries to persuade her parents to adopt Martha (which Martha explains to Truman that she knows this happened because Helen told her). The next day, Helen draws many drawings of Martha, so the parents decide to adopt her after all. Before they can, however, an old lady named Dora Bilcome adopts her.
In her limo, "Dora Bilcome" reveals herself to be Carlotta Bumblecrumb in disguise. She and her servant drive off, then in the present, Martha plans to go home. Truman demands she finish the story, so she reveals that while the Lorraines were sad that Martha was already adopted, the crooks took her to their warehouse. Carlotta Bumblecrumb tries to teach Martha how to play fetch, finally succeeding after getting her servant (Mr. Stubbles) to fetch it and earn a cookie.
That night, Carlotta Bumblecrumb and Mr. Stubbles put Martha into a store and have her steal a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. However, instead of bringing the ball to the crooks, she plays with it. They lure her out (carrying the ball) with another cookie and try to sell the baseball to a guy named "Nervous Ned", but he turns it down since Martha's drool has smudged the writing. Carlotta tries to sell him Martha instead, but he's not interested in her either.
At the warehouse, Bumblecrumb reads the newspaper and finds out that Jingles, a cat from commercials, will be staying at the Come On Inn. The next day, Carlotta Bumblecrumb enters disguised as room service with Mr. Stubbles under the tray and Martha on the tray. However, when Carlotta Bumblecrumb tries to sic Martha on Jingles, she ignores him.
Back at the hideout, the crooks watch a TV ad for a museum exhibit on dinosaur bones and decide to have Martha steal the bones. They lower Martha in through the skylight of the museum, then she takes a toe bone, but that breaks the whole skeleton, and then they fall through the skylight suspended by their rope. The police show up and Martha leads them to the crooks, who are pretending to be mannequins. One cop pats Mr. Stubbles on the bus, causing him to sneeze from the dust on his caveman shroud, leading to him and Carlotta Bumblecrumb being arrested.
Martha is sent back to the pound, then Daniel adopts her and surprises Mariella and Helen with Martha. Back in the present, Helen shows up and tells Martha that dinner is waiting.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: When Martha imagines herself in the police, she imagines herself wearing a hat and sunglasses and a glove on the tip of her tail.
- Accidental Misnaming: Kazuo accidentally calls Carlotta Bumblecrumb "Miss Crumblebum", then Nervous Ned calls her "Stumblemum", then the police call her "Bubblegum".
- Aesop Amnesia: Martha again ignores the lesson of "There Goes the Neighbourhood" (that not all Cats Are Mean) by saying that cats are not her favourite people (whereas, if she was acknowledging it, she'd have used the word "were").
- Amusing Injuries: Carlotta Bumblecrumb and Mr. Stubbles end up covered in band-aids after being scratched by Jingles.
- Animal Jingoism: Played with. The crooks try to sic Martha on Jingles (a cat), but she ignores him. Then, he attacks the three of them, which she states as one reason why cats are "not [her] favourite people".
- Baby Talk: Carlotta calls balls "ballies" when talking to Martha.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- At the very beginning, we see a car being chased by the police and we hear Martha and Truman's voices. It seems as though Martha and Truman are in the car that's being chased, but it turns out they were just watching it on TV.
- When the Lorraines decide to adopt Martha, the next thing we see is Kazuo telling Martha that she has a new owner, who is female. This seems like it will be Helen (or Mariella), but it turns out to be Carlotta.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- When Truman says, "You robbed a store?", Martha says, "No — stores; I robbed stores."
- Martha says that it's been fun reminiscing, but she needs to go home. Truman says, "What do you mean?", meaning how could she stop, but Helen thinks he doesn't know what "reminiscing" means.
- Death Glare: Kazuo frowns at a woman for trying to fit Martha into her purse and at a man for trying to use her in a magic trick.
- Delayed Reaction: Truman doesn't quite realise that Martha said she robbed stores until a few moments after she says it.
- Distinction Without a Difference: When Truman says, "You're gonna write your autobiography?", Martha replies, "No, my life story."
- Early Personality Signs: Martha reveals that as a puppy, she learnt to play fetch upon seeing that Mr. Stubbles got a cookie for fetching the ball and she wanted a cookie too.
- Evil-Detecting Dog:
- Martha doesn't want to be adopted by Carlotta Bumblecrumb, even before she does anything bad.
- Zigzagged for Jingles, who attacks Carlotta Bumblecrumb and Mr. Stubbles, but also Martha.
- Evil Is Hammy: While most of the characters are fairly grounded, Carlotta Bumblecrumb is very hammy, getting on her knees to beg Martha to fetch, doing an Evil Laugh, and shaking Mr. Stubbles when frustrated among other things.
- Evil Laugh: Carlotta Bumblecrumb laughs evilly when anticipating earning lots of money.
- Faint in Shock: Carlotta passes out, complete with the stereotypical head-on-forehead pose, when Martha drools on the ball.
- Fantasy Sequence: When Kazuo tells little Martha what sort of future she might have, she imagines herself having the different jobs he mentions.
- Food as Bribe: When Bumblecrumb has Mr. Stubbles fetch the ball to show Martha how, she feeds him a cookie, which piques Martha's interest.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- When the Lorraines first show up, they want a cat. However, they don't have one now, so (unless the cat died, which would be unlikely since the flashback is only around four years in the past)note it's a given that they don't get one.
- Seeing as Martha lives with the Lorraines now, we know that she ends up with them instead of with Carlotta Bumblecrumb.
- Martha already reveals at the beginning that she gets caught by the police.
- Greed: Carlotta Bumblecrumb and Mr. Stubbles get Martha to rob places so that they can sell things for profit.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: In her imagination, Martha wears a lifeguard's shirt and hat but no pants.
- Hope Spot: Zigzagged. Martha is sad that she has no owner, then the Lorraines arrive... only to leave... except later, they change their minds... but by then, Martha has already been adopted by the woman she dislikes... except by the end, the Lorraines do adopt Martha after all.
- Joke of the Butt: Kazuo accidentally calls Carlotta Bumblecrumb, "Miss Crumblebum".
- Magic Skirt: When Carlotta is hanging upside down, her dress stays in place.
- Mistaken for Undead: One cop thinks the dinosaur skeleton is alive upon seeing Martha moving it.
- Museum of Boredom: Carlotta Bumblecrumb can't fathom why anyone would be interested in an exhibit involving dinosaur bones.
- Nasal Trauma: One of the scratches Bumblecrumb got from Jingles was on the bridge of her nose.
- Nervous Wreck: "Nervous Ned" is seen shaking apprehensively all the time.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: The villains try to hide from the police by pretending to be mannequins in a museum exhibit.
- Origins Episode: The episode explains how the Lorraines adopted Martha.
- Poe's Law: At one point, Truman wonders if Martha is joking about having robbed stores.
- The Pratfall: Due to walking backwards, Truman falls on his rear.
- Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: One man tries to adopt the puppy Martha and use her in a trick pulling her from a hat by her ears, which he wonders if they will grow. Kazuo glares at him and tells him to adopt a rabbit instead.
- Pun: The "Come On Inn" features again.
- Slapstick:
- Carlotta Bumblecrumb and Mr. Stubbles end up tangled in a tablecloth and roll around struggling to get free.
- Later, Mr. Stubbles gets tangled in the rope used to lower Martha and both him and Bumblecrumb end up suspended upside down by the rope.
- Sleep Deprivation: Discussed. Martha says that, due to being afraid of noises at night, she didn't get much sleep when she lived in the pound.
- Spoonerism: Kazuo calls Carlotta Bumblecrumb "Miss Crumblebum".
- Stock Animal Diet: Exploited when Bumblecrumb and Mr. Stubbles decide to have Martha steal bones because she's a dog.
- Stock Animal Name: Apparently, the Lorraines once had a goldfish named Goldie.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: The Lorraines used to have a goldfish called Goldie, but she swam away never to be seen after Helen let her swim in the lake.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Most of the episode takes place in Martha's puppyhood.
- Would Hurt a Child: Jingles attacks Martha alongside the villains, even though she was a puppy at the time.
