Secret Pet Plot

Raising pets is a big responsibility. Another big responsibility is trying to keep a secret, especially from the very people you live with. Combining those two things gets you this trope: A character, or multiple characters, secretly caring for a pet and dealing with the chaos that inevitably comes from it.

Common problems include trying to hide the pet, or alternatively, losing the pet and having to search for it while not being able to get help from anyone; trying to care for and feed the pet; and eventually, either having to let the pet go or managing to convince everyone else to let them keep it.

What this trope ultimately signifies about the story is twofold. One is that the character caring for the animal is typically revealed to be a serious animal lover, or they at least manage to develop a soft spot for their new pet. Another is that having pets is against the rules or simply discouraged, requiring the character to go to great lengths to avoid the consequences of being caught.

Normally, this trope happens with larger pets, such as cats and dogs. There's a few reasons for this:

• For one, dogs and cats are very often found as stray animals, whether they grew up feral or originally had owners. This makes it pretty easy for a dog or cat to be found by the characters in the first place.
• Dogs and cats are intelligent and full of personality. They're more likely to get into trouble, wander around the house, and make noise than a pet goldfish or hamster would.
• From a Doylist perspective, these animals are easier to train and film getting into mischief, which makes them more ideal for live-action works.

This isn't to say that the animal always has to be a cat or dog, though. Any animal can count as long as it's being cared for as a pet in secret. Typically, the animal just has to be large enough and smart enough to cause problems while still being treated as an actual animal that can't care for itself. Things can be even harder, in fact, when the animal is an unconventional pet (such as a zoo animal), or even a mythological beast (such as a dragon). These more unusual pets can overlap with Beast in the Building, ramping up the comedy as the characters try desperately to care for an animal that shouldn't even be inside their house at all.

Compare No Animals Allowed and Batman in My Basement.

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Examples:

Advertisments

• In a commercial for Downy, two kids secretly smuggle a dog into their house. The secret was out when the kids were giving a dog a bath when the parents walked into the bathroom. The Kids' father tells them not to keep the dog. The kids come up with a plan, they give the dog a bouquet of flowers and give it to the father. He decided to keep the dog much to the kids' delight.

Anime & Manga

• Crayon Shin-chan: One manga chapter has Shinnosuke being gifted a chick by a street seller. However, he convinces himself that Misae would try to eat the bird, so he spends the entire chapter hiding his new pet from her. In the end, Misae finds out about the chick, assures her son that she won't harm it, and suggests he take it to the school's farm.
• A recurring occurrence in the Doraemon manga and anime, where Nobita would attempt to smuggle a stray animal into his house (due to Nobita's mother being an animal hater), stealthily sneak food for the animal, only for Tamako to eventually find out and order Nobita to have the animal(s) disposed of, resulting in Doraemon's intervention with whatever Gadget-of-the-Week he can offer. A few of the movies even use this as a plot point:
  • Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur has Nobita becoming the owner of an infant futubasaurus (a Japanese plesiosaurus breed) which he decides to name "Pisuke", but problems with trying to keep a baby dinosaur in the house arises, from Nobita trying to hide Pisuke in the bathtub (and freaking out when his father Nobisuke tries taking a hot bath), to throwing himself into his own kiddie pool when Tamako tries investigating what Nobita's attempting to hide, eventually resorting to Nobita sneaking Pisuke into the local park's lake when Pisuke becomes too large to hide. Alas, the media soon mistook Pisuke to be a Stock Ness Monster and tries draining the lake, and Nobita (with Doraemon and friends in tow) eventually decide to release Pisuke into the Cretaceous Era via Time Machine.
  • Played With in Doraemon: Nobita and the Haunts of Evil. Nobita's new pet, Peko, is originally a stray who tails him back home, which Nobita's afraid to keep due to his mother forbidding pets (leading to some quick hijinks with Nobita trying to hide Peko unsuccessfully), but Tamako finally gives in when Peko finds her missing purse for her. And then it's revealed that Peko is actually an intelligent Talking Animal from a kingdom of andromorphic dog-people posing as a stray.
  • Doraemon: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey has Nobita, once again, becoming the owner of a stray puppy which he named Ichi, and his repeated attempts to hide Ichi from his parents. And then Nobita and Doraemon rescue a second animal, a cat they named Zubu, caught in a storm, trying to hide Zubu from being found. Which is followed later by Nobita's friends Shizuka, Suneo, and Gian discovering an entire pack of several dozen stray cats and dogs living behind their school. It eventually leads to Nobita deciding to use Doraemon's Evolution Light and Time Machine (without Doraemon's permission) to sneak the strays the 300 million years ago, where Nobita accelerates their evolution and the uplifted animals later forms their own kingdom of andromorphic cats and dogs.
  • Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur is a remake (actually a Stealth Sequel) to Nobita's Dinosaur, and this time Nobita became the owner of two dinosaurs, a pair of twins he names Kyu and Myu. Like Pisuke before them, all kinds of hijinks and troubles ensue with Nobita's attempts to keep the two dinosaurs in his house and hiding them from his parents, but Mood Whiplash soon follows when Myu is spotted in public, on Nobita's rooftop.
• Happens in Elfen Lied with Lucy's puppy. She tries to keep the puppy a secret from the bullies and abusive teachers at the orphanage where she lives, but after one of the kids reveals that she's hiding it, they gang up on her and beat the puppy to death violently.
• Pokémon: The Series: Zoey's Glameow turned out to be one. As a child growing up in Snowpoint City, Zoey found Glameow and tried taking care of it, but her parents wouldn't let her have it on account of her not being a Pokémon trainer. Zoey was able to get Candice, a teacher at the local academy and Snowpoint's Gym Leader, to help her raise it in secret.

Comic Books

• Allergic: Maggie tries to hide a pet mouse in her closet (that she and her best friend Claire worked together to buy her). It fails not only because of Maggie's severe animal allergies, but because Pipsqueak had babies and her brothers blurt the secret out to their grandma. Maggie is made to give the mice back to the pet store, with her mother very upset that she was sold a pregnant mouse in the first place.
• The Beano has a story called Betty and the Yeti. The tagline for the story is "the little girl with the extraordinary best friend". Betty keeps the yeti (whose name is actually Yeti) as a pet, who causes chaos, often breaking things. Her parents don't know he exists. To help hide him, Yeti sometimes wears a wig and a dress, pretending to be a very large human girl named Agnes.

Comic Strips

• Baby Blues: Zoe and Hammie take in a kitten they received from a neighbor and try to hide it from their parents. However, it doesn't take long for Wanda to find out, and her disapproval (along with her allergies) forces the kids to let the kitten go.

Fanfic

• All God's Little Creatures: Downplayed. The secret gets out before very long, but the fic involves Alfie and Bert smuggling some kittens they rescued into 221 Baker Street in their clothing. For several minutes, they manage to hide it from Watson, but then the kittens become too loud to conceal. When Holmes arrives, the doctor and the boys try to hide the kittens again, but one of them gives the game away by walking Alfie's hat across the room.

Films — Animation

• Frankenweenie: Played with. The young Frankenstein and his parents own a dog named Sparky. When Sparky dies from being hit by a car, Victor reanimates him and keeps the zombie dog secret from his parents.

Films — Live-Action

• Annie (1982): When Annie is brought back to the orphanage, Sandy, the dog she saved from harassment while she was out, follows her back. She and the other orphans attempt to hide Sandy from Miss Hannigan, but it doesn't work for long. However, Annie being in trouble for harboring Sandy is what leads to Annie convincing Grace Farrell to pick her to stay at Oliver Warbucks' mansion.
• A variation on Beethoven's 2nd. After the titular dog sires puppies with the neighbor's dog and the neighbor's ex-wife want to sell them for being purebred, the Newton kids rescue them, but hid them in the basement from their father, knowing the ruckus that Beethoven caused during the first film. They took turns in raising the puppies, to the point of sacrificing their sleep. When the kids' teachers called their parents, they spill the beans, but the father freaks out when he discovers the puppies from the basement. The father reluctantly accepts when the kids reprimand him about how it took them full effort to raise the puppies the same way he and the mother raised the kids.
• The Taiwanese kaiju film, King Of Snake, have it's first half revolving around the child protagonist who fished out a benevolent snake from a stream while fishing and deciding to hide her new pet in her bedroom, leading to some sitcom-like antics where the snake repeatedly escapes and freaks out her parents. But then said snake accidentally gets exposed to some stray experimental growth hormones leaked from a lab, turning it into The Great Serpent.
• In Madeline, the eponymous girl is rescued from drowning by a Golden Retriever, who follows the girls home. They try to keep the dog, who they name Genevieve, in secret since pets aren't allowed at their boarding school, however the teacher is allergic to dogs and finds out when she starts sneezing.
• Reform School Girls: Some of the girls try to hide a pet cat. When Edith finds out, she stomps it dead with her shoe.

Literature

• In 100 Cupboards, Richard mentions this as a past event, as he once had a pet hare he kept hidden in his shirt...until his caretakers found out and ordered the cook to put it in his stew.
• In the novella Dog, a boy wants a dog, but his parents say no because they're Neat Freaks and don't want dog hair on the furniture. He meets a stray dog, names him Scruffy, and secretly keeps him in an old car in the woods. He's forced to tell, however, when Scruffy passes out and needs vet care. Thankfully, Scruffy survives and the parents decide to keep him after all.
• Hagrid from the Harry Potter series has an unfortunate fondness for dangerous creatures and twice tried to keep them as pets:
  • In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Hagrid gets hold of a dragon egg and intends to keep the baby dragon as a pet, despite it being illegal to do so. Eventually, the logistical challenges, such as that the dragon's rapid growth will make it impossible to keep hidden, and that, as Hermione points out, keeping a fire-breathing creature in a wooden house is not the brightest idea, lead him to send the dragon to Ron's brother, Charlie, who works with dragons already.
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets reveals that during Hagrid's time at Hogwarts, he had a secret pet acromantula, Aragog. Unforutnately, this happened to be the same time the Chamber of Secrets first opened; with the Beast of Slytherin's attacks threatening the future of Hogwarts, Tom Riddle turned Hagrid and Aragog in. Aragog was forced to flee into the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid was expelled.
• Jennings:
  • In Thanks to Jennings, Atkinson's grandmother gives him a guinea pig when he is ill. Since pets are not allowed in school, Mr Wilkins has to look after it until she returns. The animal escapes and is found by Jennings and Darbishire, who decide to keep it as a secret pet. Then Darbishire spots the school cat prowling around, and for the sake of the guinea pig's safety, locks the cat in Mr Wilkins's room...
  • In Jennings at Large, Jennings is staying with his aunt and befriends a girl who lives in her block of flats. The girl, Emma, has a whole menagerie of secret pets that she acquired accidentally at various times. Jennings suspects (wrongly) that the local gossips are close to discovering her secret, and concocts an elaborate plan to smuggle the pets into his aunt's flat for a while. Unfortunately, the gossips happen to call on his aunt and are surprised to see various animals floating past the window...
• In The Merry Little Family by Nickolay Nosov, Mishka and Kolya decide to construct a homemade incubator and hatch chickens. They hide it from their class, but their lack of sleep as they watch over the incubator quickly shows and reflects on their schoolwork, so halfway through the book, their Secret-Keeper friend tells the rest of the class about the incubator (first via I Have This Friend and then directly). The classmates tell Mishka and Kolya there was no point in all the secrecy and help them with the incubator, leading to most of the eggs hatching successfully.
• For part of the first Shiloh book, Marty technically kidnaps Shiloh from his abusive owner and keeps the dog hidden from his own family as well. This results in complications procuring food and comes to a head when Shiloh is attacked by another dog because Marty has nowhere safe to keep him, Marty's actions are revealed and he's forced to resolve the situation in a legal manner.
• Sweet Valley High: Jessica gets a free puppy from a guy giving them away without getting her parents' permission. With Elizabeth's help, she hides the dog for a week in the basement, planning to spring him on their parents so they can see she is capable of caring for a pet. She manages OK until the dog (named Prince Albert) slips off his leash during a walk and gets lost. She is inconsolable until the twins' parents surprise them by going to the dog pound and adopting a dog: Prince Albert! The parents marvel at how the dog seems to act like he already knows Jessica.
• In Too Many Rabbits by Paul Jennings, the narrator is a young boy, who isn't allowed pets. He secretly adopts a rabbit named Pinky, but things spiral out of control when she has babies, who then grow up to mate with each other, poop on the floor, and (in the case of the bucks) fight each other.
• In Both Can Be True, the vet tech Tina Martin secretly saves an elderly Pomeranian named Chewbarka from being euthanized. She plans to take her home with her, but when she hears that her daughter was in a terrible accident, she rushes from the building without the dog. Instead, thirteen-year-old volunteer Daniel smuggles Chewbarka out. Daniel and his new friend Ash keep her in a tent in a small patch of woods, and Daniel steals dog food and diapers from the vet. He becomes so exhausted from staying up late and getting up early to take care of Chewbarka without his mom finding out that it affects his grades. When the daughter of Chewbarka's former owner finds out that her beloved dog is still alive, she tries to blackmail Ash to force them to tell her where she is. In the end, Tina is able to take Chewbarka, and Daniel takes Bella to visit her, but only after making sure she won't mention it to her dad.

Live-Action TV

• ChuckleVision: In the premiere of Series 12, the Chuckle Brothers are trying to do a conjuring trick with a rabbit in Mrs Hepplewhite's hotel, only to find that she doesn't allow animals on the premises because she's allergic. Which means they have to make sure she doesn't find the rabbit — and it doesn't help when the rabbit appears to have been replaced by a rhinoceros in the bath...
• Drake & Josh: In "Sheep Thrills", Megan persuades the boys into raising a sheep named Baaaab. This forces them to care for it in their bedroom and hide it from their parents, which gets worse when Baaaab escapes and wanders around the house while their parents are home. Eventually, Baaaab gives birth, and they have to keep the lamb secret as well.
• House of Anubis: This happens at least once in all three seasons:
  • In season one, this is downplayed when Amber tries to care for the cat they found in the cellar. She fakes sick to care for it, but when it escapes, she panics and tries to tell Trudy, who only sends her back to bed. This is the catalyst for Sibuna going back down into the cellar, seeing a taxidermized cat, and believing that Victor was a cat-killer, which makes them distrust him even more than they already did.
  • In season two, Jerome and Alfie are setting up a literal "wild goose chase" to retrieve a stolen gem from the headmaster's office. Afterward, they have to care for the goose in their bedroom for long enough to have it "return" the gem that it had inadvertently swallowed. Because Anubis House doesn't allow pets, all of the students get locked up in the living room when Victor discovers the pet food Alfie ordered, and he initiates a search for the goose, forcing them to break the rules in order to hide it in their closet.
  • Mara, Willow, and Joy care for two secret pets in season three:
    • They have to secretly care for Letdown, Mara's dog, which she inherited from a deceased lord. She grows very attached to the dog, but when Joy allows Sibuna to take him for a few minutes, they accidentally let him get captured by Victor, who is once again enforcing the "no pets" rule. This helps to strain her relationship with Mara, until everyone manages to get Letdown back, though Mara has to send him to her parent's house. In this case, all of the students knew about Letdown, and it was just the teachers who were in the dark.
    • After being dumped by Alfie, Willow is crying in the kitchen with Joy and Mara, when she notices a wild hedgehog wander in. She decides to secretly care for the hedgehog in the bedroom and names him after Victor. Trouble ensues when Mara and Joy accidentally lose it, requiring Jerome's help to get a new one, only for the original hedgehog to return, which makes Willow care for two at once. Unfortunately, she's caught when the hedgehogs spread fleas to the students, and Trudy forces her to get rid of them.
• Malcolm in the Middle: Dewey secretly adopts a big mean dog. Reese and Malcolm keep it a secret from their parents, mainly because they enjoy watching the lenghts Dewey goes to trying to hide it, including at one point, pretending that he ate their whole anniversary dinner, including the candles. When Lois and Hal go out for the night, Dewey uses the dog to take control of the house and turn the tables on his older brothers (and Craig, who happened to wander in at the worst time).
• On a meta level, actress Joyce DeWitt, who played Janet on Three's Company, would later say in interviews that she knew that the writers creativity had run dry when this plot ("hide an adopted animal from the landlord") was done for the third time.
• Two and a Half Men: Alan grows attached to his ex-girlfriend's dog and steals it from her after the two break up. He spends the majority of the episode hiding the animal in his brother's house to not arouse suspicions, though his secret is outed when the police show up at the place to investigate.
• 2point4 Children: In "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", David obtains a rat and tries to hide it from his mother Bill. Chaos ensues when he takes it with him to Tina's house and scares the woman to death with it.
• WandaVision: In "On A Very Special Episode" (an homage to 80s sitcoms), Billy and Tommy attempt to hide a stray dog in the kitchen sink... until the sink starts barking. Downplayed since this part of the plot doesn't last very long — Billy and Tommy only hid him in the sink until they could get him clean enough to convince Wanda to let them keep him.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: In "Curb Your Dragon", Alex purchases a dragon that's been enchanted to look like an ordinary dog for her brother Justin. They tell their parents that the dragon was a lost dog that Alex found and try to hide the fact that he can breathe fire and fly.
• Zoey 101: Chase and Michael attempt to care for a dog named Elvis in the first season, and in one episode, they leave him with the girls because their dorm advisor is becoming suspicious. He's accidentally let out, which results in Coco finding him and sending him to the pound. Once they get him back, the girls train him to hide in their stuffed animal pile in order to not get caught again.

Radio

• In several episodes of The Men from the Ministry the staff of the General Assistance Department are forced to keep a pet in their office, including a hamster, a dog, and a parrot. Since Sir Gregory despises all animals great amount of hijinks ensue trying to hide their existence: this includes Mr. Lamb pretending to have a cold when the parrot starts talking in the file cabinet and being forced to eat the animals' food in order to fool Sir Gregory into thinking it's just his breakfast.

Video Games

• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: Cal secretly takes in a dillypillar, whom he names "Socks" during his childhood. If they regularly work in geoponics, Sol can potentially tell the adults as soon as they find out or get involved in the animal's care. Socks eventually grows out of being able to eat the food Cal provides her with and leaves on her own.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: The episode "The Domino Effect" has Anne encountering a caterpillar who resembles Domino, her pet cat back on Earth. However, Anne has to keep Domino II's existence a secret from her current guardian, Hop Pop. The twist comes in when the rapidly growing Domino II turns out to be a frog predator.
• Feed the Kitty: A dog named Marc Antony finds a little kitten (named Pussyfoot) who, after an attempt to scare, he grows attached to and takes home. He keeps Pussyfoot a secret from his owner while also doing everything to keep him out of trouble. In the end, his owner finds out and tells him that he can keep the kitten as long as he understands the responsibility.
• In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Who Let the Dogs In?", Eduardo adopts a stray puppy and tries to keep it hidden since dogs are not allowed in the house due to Mr. Herriman being terrified of them.
• An episode of Franklin has Franklin try and keep a duckling he found as a pet and hide it from his parents. The duckling turns out to be more trouble than it's worth as it's constantly hungry and makes messes.
• In the UPA cartoon Georgie and the Dragon, a Scottish boy wants a pet, but his father won't let him, so when he finds a baby dragon, he takes it home and tries to hide it. Which becomes harder as the dragon starts growing rapidly.
• The Great North: In "Xmas with the Skanks Adventure", a reindeer from a Santa's Village follows Moon home and he hides it in the shed. He plans to keep it as a pet, but then "Wilhelm", as he's been calling it, starts giving birth.
• Hilda: Jellybean, the Barghest that causes chaos in Trolberg in the season 1 finale, is eventually revealed to have once been the secret pet of the Nisse that lives in Hilda's house. She found him as a pup and took him home, even teaching him how to enter and leave Nowhere Space, but one day her parents found out and took Jellybean away. In the present, the now adult Jellybean was not actively malicious, but simply trying to find his old owner again.
• The Loud House: In "Animal House", Lana doesn't want to part with three animals she befriended at the pound (a llama named Larry, a sugar glider named Squirt, and a penguin named Willy). So, she asks her parents if they can keep them, but they say no since the family already has many pets. Lana then keeps Larry, Squirt, and Willy secretly in the attic, but gives up when they escape in the house and she realises that it's because they're bored.
  • Another episode has Lincoln volunteer to watch his class' pet tarantula. The secret part is mostly aimed at Leni, who's terrified of spiders.
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023): Literally the entire series is. Because Lunella practically has treated and cared for Devil like a household pet, and like most pets, Devil has given his affection, care, and loyalty in return. However because Devil is a dinosaur, Lunella has had to keep his relationship with him, a total secret. Lunella mostly keeps Devil in her secret lab when they’re not fighting crime, and the only time Lunella and Devil are ever seen together by the general public, is when they’re Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Aside from her best friend, Casey Calderon and Mimi Lafayette, who has been aware of Lunella’s secret superhero life from the very start, no one in the entire LES, not even her family knows, that Lunellla Lafayette has a secret pet dinosaur.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Played for laughs in "Helter Shelter". After being lectured about bringing home so many animals, Bubbles brings home a whale, which she and her sisters make an attempt to keep hidden from the professor before settling with flooding his lab due to the whale starting to dehydrate.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "My Pretty Seahorse", SpongeBob adopts a seahorse and takes it to work, though Mr. Krabs orders him to get rid of the animal after it accidentally injures a customer. SpongeBob disobeys his boss and hides the pet in the kitchen's cupboard, where it causes trouble once more by eating various objects. Finding out the truth, Krabs surprisingly feels sympathy for his employee and softly convinces him to set the seahorse free.
• Teen Titans (2003): One episode reveals Beast Boy had secretly kept one of Killer Moth's grubs as a pet and named it Silky, with Starfire finding out. At first disapproving, Starfire quickly grows to be more attached to Silky than Beast Boy and promises to keep Silky hidden from the other titans, failing due to feeding Silky Tamaranean food that causes it to grow to monstrous size.
• One episode of The Wild Thornberrys sees Eliza adopting a little wombat and trying to take it with her when the family travels to India for their next job. Naturally, the wombat does not take well to life aboard a ship, and Eliza has to keep her hidden from the authorities onboard, who happen to be trying to crack down on animal smuggling.

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