The Canine Mutiny

"The Canine Mutiny" is the twentieth episode of Season 8.
==Synopsis==
Bart commits credit card fraud again — this time, by filling out a credit card application under Santa's Little Helper's name and going on a catalogue shopping spree — which leads him to buy a wonder dog named Laddie and send Santa's Little Helper to the Repo Depot when everything he bought on the card gets taken back due to lack of payment.
==Full Story==
After a mail call, Bart complains that he doesn't get any mail, so Marge lets him have the junk mail. Most of them are termite ads, one of them is a credit card application and Bart fills it under the name of his dog, Santa's Little Helper, his income, "whatever I finds I keeps," and claims the occupation to be "butt doctor". The company misreads the name as "Santos L. Halper", and the credit card application is approved. Before long, Bart receives a credit card.
Bart goes to The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, and attempts to buy some expensive comic books using the credit card. However, Comic Book Guy figures out what Bart is trying to do and refuses to sell him the comic books. Bart realizes that he can buy items via catalog, and he then goes on a shopping spree. He buys the family some very expensive gifts from a mail order catalog; to Marge he buys Vancouver smoked salmon and a radio-frying pan, to Homer a golf shirt with corporate logo, to Lisa "Trucker's Choice Stay-Alert Capsules" and many things for himself. Lisa however become suspicious when she sees how decked out Bart's room is, but because of the pills he gave her, she cannot process correctly. The item that Bart anticipates the most is a finely-bred, pre-trained collie. Not letting its US$1,200 purchase price stand in the way, Bart promptly orders one. Upon its arrival, Bart learns that the dog's name is Laddie, and the rest of the family falls in love with the new dog, while Santa's Little Helper gets turned down.
Bart fails to pay off "Santos L. Halper's" credit card bill, and it isn't long before he gets a call from a debt collection agency demanding payment. When the calls and collection letters persist, Bart enlists Laddie to help bury his ill-gotten credit card. Later, repo men arrive to take back all of the items Bart purchased. Thankfully his parents are out walking with the neighbors, but Lisa is home and demands an explanation, so Bart is forced to tell the truth. When a re-possessor demands the $1,200 collie be returned, and after seeing Santa's Little Helper destroy a photo album and Laddie watering the flowers, Bart identifies Santa's Little Helper as the dog that he purchased. The greyhound is herded into the truck and Bart sadly watches as it drives off. After the truck leaves he immediately feels guilty about what he did. Realizing that Santa's Little Helper is gone, the family begins to bond with Laddie, except for Bart, who fears for Santa's Little Helper's fate and also realizes after seeing how much their neighbors and friends like Laddie at the dog park, he was the only one in the family who truly loved Santa's Little Helper. When an exhausted Bart gives Laddie yet another walk, the collie saves the life of Baby Gerald. At the ceremony honoring Laddie's heroism, Chief Wiggum realizes that Laddie would make the perfect police dog. Bart decides to give Laddie to the Springfield police force and is forced to explain why the family does not have a dog at all. Bart manages to not reveal that he got a credit card and that repo men took Santa's Little Helper.
Homer instructs Bart to do whatever it takes to get Santa's Little Helper back and he goes hunting around the town, trying to find his old pal. Bart eventually learns from Reverend Lovejoy that the dog was given to a parishioner named Mr. Mitchell.
Bart visits Mr. Mitchell, who is blind and lonesome, and asks for his dog back, but when he sees how the man and Santa's Little Helper have bonded, he grows heartsick and leaves. Still determined to get his dog back, Bart makes a late-night visit to Mr. Mitchell's home in hopes of retrieving Santa's Little Helper. The pair are reunited, but Bart traps himself in a closet. Mr. Mitchell calls the police and demands that Bart be charged with burglary, but Bart explains that Santa's Little Helper was his dog and that he wanted him back.
To solve the problem, Mitchell says that they'll let Santa's Little Helper decide where he wants to go, with him choosing Bart. Chief Wiggum arrives with Laddie, who immediately sniffs out a bag of marijuana in Mr. Mitchell's pocket. Bart and Santa's Little Helper head home, leaving the police to "finish up" with Mitchell.
== Citations ==
fr:Un chien de ma chienne
pl:The Canine Mutiny
pt:Motim canino
Category:Animal-themed Episodes
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Santa's Little Helper episodes
Category:Crime-themed Episodes
Category:Education-themed episodes
Category:Episodes with a alternative Gracie Films logo
Category:Episodes with alternate end credits
Category:Written by Ron Hauge
Category:Directed by Dominic Polcino
Category:Highly Rated Episodes
Category:Episodes Where Bart cries