Love That Pup

STORY
Spike is sleeping beside his son Tyke when Tyke suddenly wakes up from a bad dream. Spike then comforts his son back to sleep again. No sooner does Tyke doze off then Tom and Jerry enter the scene. Tom runs through a door and into some spades, rakes and hoes, as Jerry hides among the two dogs. To find Jerry, Tom picks Tyke up to look underneath the puppy.

Tom holds up his right hand and sees nothing, then holds up his left hand, and drops Tyke in fear. Tom smiles nervously, attempting to run off, but Spike grabs Tom by the whiskers and issues him an ultimatum: leave Tyke alone or suffer the consequences. Tom runs and was hit in the fountain, tree, clothesline hanger and into the trash can.

Jerry emerges from behind Tyke and walks off casually until Tom comes running back. Jerry takes cover by diving into what appears to be Spike's jaw, but he really ducked under the dog's chin. Seeing the dog smack his lips as if having eaten the mouse, Tom then places his hand carefully in Spike's mouth while the dog is sleeping, and Jerry emerges from his hiding place and slams the bulldog's jaws shut with Tom's hand still in Spike's mouth. Tom yells in pain and leaps a meter back. Spike wakes up as Tom struggles to get his hand out of his mouth, pulling Spike's teeth out in the process. Tom smiles innocently again, and uses Spike's teeth as castanets while doing a Flamenco dance (while clicking to the tune of The Mexican Hat Dance) out of the scene and runs away, dropping the teeth on the bucket.

A few moments later, Tom spies Jerry sleeping next to Tyke, now using the dogs as shields. Hiding behind Tyke's kennel, he reaches out for Jerry. Jerry quietly moves Tyke's tail into Tom's grip, so that Tom ends up grabbing Tyke. After running off with the little pup, Tom realizes his mistake. He turns around to see a sleeping Spike feeling for Tyke. Tom rushes back into Tyke's place, taking on the role of Tyke. To wake up the dog, Jerry then lifts up Tyke's kennel and slams it on Tom's tail. Tom screams in pain, and Spike picks him up and pats him on the back. Just then, Tyke walks back onto the scene and whimpers. Spike looks at Tom suspiciously. Tom duplicates Tyke's whimpering and barking, but accidentally meows when he tries to duplicate his growl. Spike and Tom then growl ferociously at each other until Tom clamps his jaws on the dog's nose and runs away.

Tom takes a detour to the side, sets up a rake for the dog to run into if he follows him, and then watches as Spike takes the original route. Knowing he's lost his opponent, he runs back through the detour... and onto his own rake.

Tom finally realizes that in order to get Jerry, Spike, who is effectively Jerry's shield, must be removed from the picture. He does this by dangling a large piece of steak from a clothesline. A sleeping Spike (who holds a shotgun) senses the delectable piece of meat, and sleepwalks after the steak. Jerry is privy to what Tom is trying to accomplish. All of Jerry's efforts to wake up the mesmerized dog fail, and he ends up getting flattened. Tom successfully locks Spike in a garden shed. A evil smiled Tom smiles at Jerry. A horrified Jerry runs. Tom can now attack Jerry without his shield. He can also harm Tyke.

Tom then catches Jerry, trapping him inside an upturned barrel and hammering a cork in its knot hole. However, without Tom noticing, Jerry escapes through the side of the barrel and puts Tyke under the barrel instead. Spike busts himself out of the shed and rushes up to Tom angrily and demands to know where his son is, threatening to skin him alive if Tyke is underneath the barrel.

Tom confidently starts to lifts up the barrel, until he hears a whistle, and looks to his side to see Jerry lying on a nearby fence, waving to him. Tom does a double gulp, realizing he is in serious trouble. Apparently unaware that Tom cannot possibly be responsible for placing Tyke underneath, the dumb dog demands that Tom lift the barrel. Shivering, Tom begins to lift the barrel, only to have Spike impatiently swipe it. Tyke is lying underneath it, wiggling his tail at his father. Tom makes a quick exit, but runs into Spike, who attacks and skins the cat alive (off-screen).

In the final scene, Tom has literally been skinned alive, and he is wearing a barrel to cover his lack of fur. While standing outside the gate, having been assigned by Spike to guard them with a baseball bat, he looks through the keyhole to see his fur being used as a snug rug by a sleeping Spike, Tyke and Jerry, who hangs a DO NOT DISTURB sign over Spike's ear.