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Plot
Springfield is “in the grip of lottery fever” with a $130 million jackpot and, as a result, an ailing Santa’s Little Helper is ignored.

Once he is discovered to be sick, the family rushes him to the hospital to undergo an emergency operation. Homer is saddened to tell Bart and Lisa that they just can’t afford the $750 for the operation, but seeing how much everyone (including himself) loves the dog, he resolves to find a way to pay for it.

To save up the money, everyone must give up their small luxuries. Among other things, Homer has to give up beer, Marge has to forgo her weekly lottery ticket, Bart has to have his hair cut for free at Springfield Barber College, Lisa has to forgo the 4th edition of Encyclopedia Generica (Copernicus to Elephantiasis), and Maggie’s clothes have to last a little longer.

Things begin to fall apart after it is found that Marge’s regular numbers would have won $40,000, and the family begin to resent the dog for forcing them to lose out on the things they enjoy, as Homer is reduced to singing at Moe’s, Lisa has to do a report on Copernicus, Maggie’s clothes rip and Bart suffers from an awful haircut.

After the family say bad things to the dog, it is the final straw. Santa’s Little Helper runs away from home and goes off in an adventure, only to be adopted by Mr. Burns, who trains him to become one of his vicious attack hounds. After a long brainwashing process, which is that the dog watches a movie totally consisting of people being abusive to dogs, and Santa’s Little Helper being trained by attacking Smithers who is in a protection suit, Santa’s Little Helper in turn becomes a bloodthirsty killer.

The family starts feeling sorry for hating the dog and Bart decides to bring him back. When Bart goes to Burns’s mansion to retrieve his dog, Santa’s Little Helper (along with other vicious dogs) tries to attack him but remembers all the good times they had and snaps out of his brainwashed state. After that, the other vicious dogs try to attack Bart, but Santa’s Little Helper growls at them to leave Bart alone. The dog then returns to the family who starts loving him again.

The episode ends with a disclaimer: “No dogs were harmed in the filming of this episode. A cat got sick and somebody shot a duck, but that’s it.”

Cultural references

1. Lisa corrects Homer, indicating Nixon’s dog was named Checkers.
2. Among the books that end up in the Simpson’s fireplace are The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (which ironically enough, is about a society where books are burned), Fatherhood by Bill Cosby and a book entitled “Canine Surgery”. Fatherhood was heavily referenced in the episode “Saturdays of Thunder” earlier this season.
3. The scene in which Monty Burns and Smithers brainwash Santa’s little helper

is a parody of Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, complete with Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”.

4. Music from Peter and the Wolf, a children’s story composed by Sergei Prokofiev, is played over the wanderings of Santa’s Little Helper through Springfield’s outer domains.
5. This episode contains numerous references to facts or rumors about Michael Jackson; for example, one of the highways is called the “Michael Jackson Expressway” (referencing “Stark Raving Dad”), Kent Brockman’s butler telling Kent that his pet llama bit Ted Kennedy, and Mr. Burns is sleeping in an iron lung as part of his longevity treatment.
6. Principal Skinner’s idea for a prison where children are held in place by magnets is reminiscent of the prison in Face/Off.