Dog of Death (S03, E19-054)

All hail King Homer!

Plot Summary
Its lottery fever in Springfield, and everybody is buying tickets, including Homer who buys 50 in the frenzy.  While this is occurring, though, Santa's Little Helper appears to be sick and barely able to stand (also his nose is gray the entire episode which is kinda odd).  It isn't until after Homer loses the lottery (but hey at least Kent Brockman won) where Grampa points out that the dog is dead.  Well, its sick but Grampa doesn't care.

A trip to the vet later, its learned that Santa's Little Helper has a twisted stomach, which will eventually kill the dog if left untreated.  An operation is needed to fix it, but it'll cost $750.  Homer and Marge are initially unwilling to do so because of the high cost, but Bart and the dog convince them otherwise, and Marge is able to devise a plan to save enough money, by having everyone make sacrifices.  Soon enough the money is scrounged up, and the dog is saved.

Just two days later, everyone is disgruntled, particularly Homer as his precious pork chop night has been replaced with chub.  As one would expect, the sacrifices the Simpsons made to pay for the operation is biting them hard.

• Marge gave up her weekly lottery ticket, but it turns out that her winning numbers finally come up.
• Homer gave up beer, and goes to the bar just to poorly sing songs for quarters.
• Lisa was getting volumes of the Encyclopedia Generica at the grocery store, but gave that up before she could get the volume on Copernicus: the next subject of Lisa's essay.
• Bart agrees to get haircuts at the Springfield Barber College for free.  That doesn't work out well.
• Maggie doesn't get any new baby clothes, while her current set just happen to fall apart at the right time.

As a result, everybody in the family gets angry at the dog.  Feeling unwanted, the dog is able to run away and go on an adventure for awhile before being picked up by the dog pound.  Mr. Burns, in need of a new attack dog, gets Santa's Little Helper to condition him into being a vicious attack dog.  Bart stumbles upon Burns' house in search of the dog, and upon being attacked by Santa's Little Helper, he's able to 'reach' his dog, returning him to normal.  The dog is brought back home and everybody loves him again.

Quick Review
Dog of Death is a weaker episode compared to several of the episodes that preceded it, but like with a lot of these early episodes there's still some good laughs to be had.  Much of the lottery-related storyline was great whether it was Homer's deluded dreams of using the winnings to become the pictured King Homer or Kent Brockman after he wins the lottery.  Still, one of Season 3's lesser episodes.

Final Score: 7.9