Martha sees that a new neighbour is moving in and tells the Lorraine ladies, plus a visiting Truman. They all come over with pie, and meet the new neighbour, Mr. Pangorn. He reveals that he has a mouse infestation and wants to borrow a cat since his one is too old to hunt. Martha, to protect her ego, offers to deal with the problem instead.
Mr. Pangorn shows Martha in and introduces her to his old, lethargic cat Lightning, and complains that the mice have made him a bit grumpy. She doesn't see any, but he says they're hiding and tells her to get rid of them before he comes back from his business trip.
Sure enough, it turns out that there are mice, but they hide away in a hole. Martha then tells the mice that Lightning is too old to "play" with them, but she can. She has them play hide and seek, and they find her when she laughs, but they run away again. Then, she has them hide, and at home, she reveals to Helen that the mice aren't gone yet but she's making progress.
However, when Mr. Pangorn comes back, he's shocked to see that the mice are not only still there, she's befriended them and fed them from the fridge. He tells her off, then decides to call an exterminator. Martha is shocked, since she knows exterminators kill mice, so she tells them, and they run off down the drain.
Mrs. Oatley then phones Martha and invites her over, and it turns out they have mice as well. Helen and Truman are afraid of them, so Martha has them leave. She then gets a reputation as the mouse-scare-away-er and so is asked to scare them away from various houses, but then she reveals that they're the same mice. Helen tells Martha not to just tell them to go away and have them go to the next house, and then the mice move to the Lorraine house.
The Lorraine parents and Jake are afraid of mice too, so Martha asks them to live in the wild. However, they refuse because they're "house mice". They start a protest chant (in squeaks) and Martha reveals that not only can they chant, they can act. This gives the Lorraines the idea to have the mice hired as actors, and Martha reveals that Mr. Pangorn is a theatre agent, so he decides to keep them and have them perform.
This episode provides examples of
- Aesop Amnesia: Martha shows cat prejudice in spite of learning that it was wrong in "There Goes the Neighbourhood".
- And Your Reward Is Edible: Mr. Pangorn rewards Martha with a bone for scaring away the mice.
- Animal Jingoism: Martha sulks about Mr. Pangorn owning a cat.
- Answer Cut: Martha says that Mr. Pangorn must have "told everybody". Helen says, "Told them what?", and we cut to Truman saying, "That you're great at getting rid of mice".
- Calling Me a Logarithm: When Helen says that Martha was "relocating" the mice, she's offended, but then realises she doesn't know what that means.
- Cats Are Snarkers: Martha complains that cats have attitude problems when Lightning is rude to her.
- Compressed Vice: Martha expresses disdain at Mr. Pangorn wanting a cat, calling him a "cat person", yet she has no problem with Alice, who also owns a cat.
- Dramatic Irony: When Mr. Pangorn runs outside screaming in anger, she thinks he's playing a game.
- Facepalm: Mr. Pangorn puts his hand to his face when Martha asks him what a solution is, then again when she apologises about the state of the kitchen.
- Hidden Depths: At the end, it turns out that the mice can act.
- Interspecies Friendship: Martha ends up making friends with the mice.
- Ironic Name: Despite his name, Lightning is very lethargic.
- Mouse Hole: The mice live in a hole in the wall.
- Nearly Normal Animal: The mice can understand English, and they can count (they squeak ten times and count the squeaks in their heads) but are otherwise normal mice.
- Pest Episode: The episode involves Martha trying to solve a neighbour's mouse infestation.
- Senior Sleep-Cycle: Lightning is an old cat and sleeps even more than most cats.
- Shrinking Violet: The mice are initially shy and keep running into their hole at the drop of a hat.
- Stock Animal Diet:
- Lightning's only reason for not killing the mice is that he's too old.
- Martha eats a bone at one point.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The Lorraines and Truman are revealed to be afraid of mice.
- You Can Talk?: Upon meeting Martha, Mr. Pangorn says, "Did your dog say something?!".
