Helen, her dogs, and T.D. are playing ball on the street, but then the ball lands in Mrs. Demson's yard. The kids are dismayed, since Mrs. Demson is such a cross-patch, but she forgives them, to their confusion. Skits retrieves the ball, and then Weaselgraft and Pablum drive up. Weaselgraft says that if they owned Mrs. Demson's house, they would be closer to the Lorraine house, and therefore it'd be easier for them to steal Martha. Upon noticing that Mrs. Demson is acting friendlier than usual, he decides to make friends with her and then cheat her.
They drive off, then the kids wonder why Mrs. Demson (who now wants to join the kids and dogs in their game) is being friendly. Then, Dr. Hardly shows up and reveals that he advised her to be more cheerful. The kids, dogs, and Mrs. Demson play soccer in the park.
That night, Helen tells her parents about Mrs. Demson's change in behaviour. The Lorraine parents then go bowling at the same time as Mrs. Demson, and they find Weaselgraft and Pablum working at the bowling alley. They ask Mrs. Demson if she has any suggestions for the alley, and she says that she has too many to write down right then, so invites them over the next day.
At breakfast the next day, the Lorraines discuss how nice Mrs. Demson has become, and then she shows up wanting to play with Martha, but Martha is tired. On the sidewalk, she grouses to Helen about having been worn out, then the two notice Weaselgraft and Pablum's van. The villains have a clipboard and reveal that they plan to tell Mrs. Demson that signing the paper makes her suggestions official, but in reality, she'll be signing her house over to them for free. They decide to tell Daniel and Mariella, so Helen checks at home while Martha checks the vet's (since Daniel and Mariella were planning to take Skits to the vet).
While Mrs. Demson makes her suggestions, the vet reveals to Martha that Danny and Mariella just took Skits home. Martha overhears the vet talking about someone who's grumpy, but healthy, and decides that would make a good pet for Mrs. Demson. She asks the vet which animal it was, but it turns out she was talking about Mrs. Demson herself. Then, it turns out that the delivery guy got Dr. Hardly's and the vet's reports around the wrong way and it was actually a pet that needed to be more cheerful.
Mrs. Demson finally runs out of suggestions, and as she's about to sign, Dr. Hardly, the vet, Helen, Martha, and Mariella show up. They explain about the mix-up (revealing the other report to be about a crab). Upon hearing that she no longer needs to be cheerful, Mrs. Demson goes back to being grouchy and chases the two men away.
This episode provides examples of
- Agony of the Feet: Martha complains that her paws hurt from playing too much.
- An Arm and a Leg: Discussed. When Skits takes the ball, Mrs. Demson says, "I thought he was gonna swallow my whole arm!".
- Comically Missing the Point: When Weaselgraft asks what he and Pablum do to friendly people, Pablum says, "We make friends with them?". Weaselgraft says, "Yes, but then what?", and Pablum says, "Make cookies with them?".Weaselgraft: "No, we cheat them!"
- File Mix Up: Mrs. Demson's medical report gets switched with a crab's by mistake.
- Flashback:
- After losing the ball in Mrs. Demson's yard, we see scenes of past times she was obnoxious to the kids.
- Weaselgraft flashes back to being shooed off Mrs. Demson's lawn.
- Fun with Homophones: When Pablum says, "Tomorrow, our house will be ours!", not realising that Mrs. Demson could still hear, Weaselgraft claims that he meant her house will be "hours" away.
- Genius Sweet Tooth: Implied when Pablum wants to make cookies with Mrs. Demson.
- Hidden Depths: Mrs. Demson is revealed to be a lot spryer than she lets on, as she is perfectly capable of joining in a game of soccer and playing for three hours without getting tired.
- Innocently Insensitive: Mrs. Demson intended to make Martha happy by playing with her, but accidentally wore her paws out instead.
- Insane Troll Logic: Martha thinks she's dreaming when Mrs. Demson starts being nice, but she tells Helen to remind her to tell her about the "dream" when she wakes up, not realising that if she were dreaming, Helen would just be imaginary and thus have no memory of it.
- Long List: Mrs. Demson's list of suggestions adds up to 6,057.
- Nap-Inducing Speak: Weaselgraft briefly falls asleep while Mrs. Demson is making suggestions for the bowling alley.
- Neat Freak: Exaggerated for Mrs. Demson, who once told off Alice for getting dirt on her dirt.
- Shaped Like Itself: When Mrs. Demson asks, "How could you have an accident like that?!" regarding the kite stuck in her tree, T.D. replies, "Uh... accidentally?".
- Status Quo Is God: Mrs. Demson goes back to being a grump at the end of the episode.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Subverted. Mrs. Demson seems to be more perky than usual, but it turns out that she's only acting like that on doctor's orders.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Subverted. Mrs. Demson seems to have gotten nicer, but it turns out that she's only acting that way because Dr. Hardly told her to.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Downplayed. Only Martha complains about Mrs. Demson being nice (because Mrs. Demson accidentally wore Martha's paws out playing with her). Most of the characters like her improved behaviour.
