A stock plot about pet ownership.
In the first act, we meet Alice and her dog Tropey. Tropey is a good boy, though he does have a few bad habits and obvious flaws. Alice often finds it difficult to be patient with him, and eventually there comes a breaking point when she loses her temper and sends Tropey away.
In the second act, sad Tropey is all alone while Alice is happily playing with Fido, a new dog without Tropey's flaws.
But in the third act, Alice falls into danger. She cries for help, and it is Tropey who comes to her rescue. All is forgiven, and everyone learns the valuable lesson that pets enrich their owner's lives in a way that more than compensates for the times when they're an inconvenience.
Bonus points if Tropey comes to the rescue while Fido runs away or does nothing, or if the habit of Tropey's that annoyed her so much is the very skill that saves her.
Compare with Timmy in a Well, Androcles' Lion, and Tropey, Come Home.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- There was a Goof Troop comic in Disney Adventures in which Pete replaces his dog with a cardboard robot guard dog after their house gets robbed. Turns out "Card" is actually programmed to let its creator in to rob the house again.
Films — Animated
- In Lilo & Stitch (2002), Lilo tells Stitch to go away after she discovers that he's an alien, and that he's the reason that they were being pursued by Jumba and Pleakley. Right after, however, she gets captured by Gantu, and Stitch rescues her.
- The final segment of Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas has Pluto running away to the North Pole after Mickey yells at him for wrecking his Christmas decorations. Pretty soon, Pluto becomes homesick for his master, while Mickey soon feels that he Was Too Hard on Him and goes out to find him. Santa Claus ends up reuniting the two.
- In The Queen's Corgi, Queen Elizabeth II scolds Rex for causing mayhem at the President's visit and sends him to his room. This makes Rex think the Queen doesn't love him anymore. The idea of running away wasn't exactly Rex's idea, but Charlie's, as he told him that the Pope is looking for new dogs.
Literature
- In the Hank the Cowdog book "Every Dog Has His Day", High Loper gets help for his roundup from another rancher and his border collie Benny. He even considers replacing Hank with one, especially after Hank causes trouble on that day and has run away as a result. When High Loper is trapped in quicksand, Benny refuses to help because he's not the kind of dog to go doing rescues. Hank rescues his owner instead, who praises him for his efforts.
- In the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Nightingale, the Emperor of China tames a nightingale, but neglects it in favor of a clockwork bird. When Death comes for the Emperor, it is the live Nightingale who charms the Grim Reaper with his sweet song.
Live-Action TV
- The Addams Family has a "Come Back, My Disembodied Hand!" episode. In '"Thing Is Missing," several family members get annoyed with Thing or fail to appreciate him, until finally he runs away from home. Gomez and Morticia do all they can to find him, and after he finally comes home, they resolve to give him more attention. This episode was also remade for ''The New Addams Family," with a new twist on the ending: the Addamses come to believe Thing is dead and hold a memorial service for him, and when Thing secretly attends and hears their grief-stricken eulogies, he realizes how much they love him and comes out of hiding.
Video Games
- Dragon Quest VII: The village of Nottagen features a variant with Buddy, a man who has exotic tastes in pets. Namely, monsters. After his first pet Rocky blows himself up to protect him, Buddy adopts a larval Worm of Woe whom he names Wiggles, much to the dismay of the other villagers. Said villagers pressure the party to help them kill the beast; if you refuse and warn Buddy, he tries to Shoo the Dog, only for Wiggles to return in Nottagen's time of need. Alternatively, killing Wiggles yourself ensures that Buddy is the Sole Survivor.
Western Animation
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: Courage routinely does this for Eustace, who routinely scares and abuses him. However, it's less out of the goodness of his heart and more because of his devotion for Eustace's wife Muriel.
- The Flintstones: In the episode "Dino Disappears," Fred forgets Dino's one-year anniversary as the Flintstones' pet, and later he wrongly thinks Dino is attacking Pebbles when really he just saved her from falling out of her cradle, and forces him to sleep outside. So Dino runs away from home. The family is distraught, and Fred spends the rest of the episode looking for Dino (and mistakenly brings home another dinosaur that looks like him) until finally Dino comes back in the end.
- In the House of Mouse short "Pluto vs. The Watchdog", Mickey Mouse, thinking Pluto is too idiotic to be a watchdog, buys a new dog named Muncey. However, the watchdog is really working with Pete so he can rob Mickey. Pluto saves the day at the end.
Mickey: [about Pluto] What a watchdog!
- In the Madeline episode "Madeline and the Singing Dog," Miss Clavel and the girls get angry with Genevieve and make her sleep outside after she ruins their field trip to the opera by howling along with the music. A dinner theatre impresario who heard and liked Genevieve's "singing" then lures her away to be his star attraction, convincing her that the girls don't want her anymore. But of course the girls are distraught, search for her, and reunite with her in the end.
- Molly of Denali: In "Leader of the Pack," Suki is initially used to help train Kih in new skills, but she ends up being a bigger distraction than an asset, so Tooey asks Molly to keep her home until he's made progress with Kih's training. But when Kih falls into the river, it's Suki who jumps in to save him. As a result, Tooey starts to use Suki as a play reward for Kih's training.
- An early episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic involves a variant of this. As Rainbow Dash is holding a contest to find the best pet for her, a tortoise insists on competing alongside all the speedy flying creatures, even in the face of Rainbow Dash's repeated dismissal. During the final race, Rainbow Dash gets her wing caught under a boulder, unnoticed by the other flyers, and begins to panic about being stuck there. Cue the tortoise arriving and successfully lifting the boulder off of Rainbow Dash, even carrying her to the finish line. Rainbow Dash repays this by declaring him the winner, citing that she said whoever crossed the finish line with her would be her pet.
- In an episode of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Scooby runs away after the kids yell at him for getting in their way. When they discover the pup is missing, Shaggy immediately feels guilty and cries his eyes out while the team goes off to search for him.
- In a Tom and Jerry cartoon, Tom's owner gets annoyed that Tom never tries to catch Jerry anymore so replaces him with a robot mouse catcher and Tom is kicked out. Since Jerry can't live in the house due to the robot throwing him out he and Tom work together and eventually the robot goes wild and terrorizes Tom's owner, and it's up to Tom to save her.