Plot
Springfield is "in the grip of lottery fever" with a $130 million jackpot and, as a result, no one in the Simpson family notices that their pet dog, Santa's Little Helper, has become seriously ill. Once the dog is discovered to be sick, the family rushes him to the hospital where they learn that he needs a seven hundred and fifty dollar emergency operation of bloat. Homer is saddened to tell his children, Bart and Lisa, that the family simply cannot afford the operation. However, after seeing how much everyone loves the dog, especially Bart, he decides to find a way to pay for it.
In order to afford the operation, everyone in the family has to create a lot of budget cuts in their everyday life, such as Homer having to give up on buying beer and Marge having to cook with lower-quality food and forgo her weekly lottery ticket. Bart must get his haircuts at a local barber school and Lisa can no longer get her volumes of "Encyclopedia Generica" at the supermarket. Maggie's clothes have to last a little bit longer. They eventually save up enough money for the operation, which becomes a success. The family is joyous that their dog is well again, but soon begins to feel the strain of their sacrifices. As a result, the morale of the family suffers from the sacrifices they made and they take their rage out on Santa's Little Helper. Feeling unwanted, Santa's Little Helper runs away from home and goes off on an adventure, only to be captured, taken to the dog pound, and adopted by Mr. Burns, who trains him to be one of his vicious attack hounds. After a long brainwashing process, consisting of the Ludovico technique, Santa's Little Helper is turned into a bloodthirsty killer.
The family begins to regret all the disgusting things they said about their dog, and Bart decides to get him back. Bart goes from home to home asking if anyone has seen his dog. When he arrives at Burns' mansion, Santa's Little Helper, along with other vicious dogs, tries to attack him. However, when remembering all the good times they had, Santa's Little Helper snaps out of his brainwashed state. After that, the other vicious dogs try to attack Bart, but Santa's Little Helper growls at them and they run away. The dog then returns to the Simpson family, who shower him with love.
Read more about this topic: Dog Of Death
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
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They carry nothing dutiable; they won’t
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—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)