Littlest Pet Shop is a strange show.

Our heroes are pets who live in a pet store, plus one human with Doctor Doolittle powers. Backing them up is an eccentric cast of mental patients, and an occasional random animal whom we never see again.

I still don’t get why Sugar Sprinkles went walkabout after her appearance, but Butterscotch kept coming back even though I want her to die.

I also don’t know why so many other animals visit once and are never heard from again. Like Gail, Zoe’s sister, who would have had every reason to make return appearances. In fact, I don’t know why Zoe visits the shop, but her sister doesn’t. Let me guess: Gail has a day job. She works retail.

But this week, we introduce another animal guest star. And this time, there a reason we’ll never see him again. Everyone hates him.

His name is Shivers. He’s a squirrel, and a hoarder. We meet him as Blythe is searching through the back dumpster for Twombly’s glasses, which is a B-plot I’ll deal with later.

I’ll give the writer credit, since Shivers appears surprised that Blythe is talking to him. Which should happen every time she meets a new animal, yet it only happened twice since the premiere. I’ll assume that the other one-shot pets were briefed on Blythe’s powers by the regulars.

Blythe is actually the one who names him, right after he explains his occupation as a treasure hunter, which is odd since he thinks a hairball counts as treasure. He’s probably not a very successful treasure hunter.

The hairball appears to belong to Sugar Sprinkles. Or at least I hope it does since I can count it as a reappearance. It’s the right colour at least.

So, Blythe goes back into the store, and Shivers tries to follow her, before impacting on the door, which is curious.

She questions Twombly about the glasses, and is diverted to Sweet Delights, where Shivers spots her running past him, which is odd, since he should have been on the other side of the building. Bit of a continuity error there.

Once she arrives, asking for Twombly’s glasses, we get a big musical number about The Lost and Found Box. Normally, I find these things annoying, but this one was so ridiculously absurd that I have to take exception. It’s completely ridiculous, and afterward Blythe sort of hangs a lantern on the whole thing, so I love it. I was literally laughing out loud as this thing went on.

But as she returns to the store, it seems Shivers decided to stow away on her hair. He introduces himself to the animals, saying he’s Blythe’s pet squirrel.

This would have been a great opportunity by the writers to declare a new element to pet culture: If you name an animal, you’re their owner. It would have been awesome, and it would have added a bit of tension and hilarity to forthcoming scenes. But they don’t do that, for some reason.

Regardless, Shivers decides to take undue advantage of the pets’ hospitality. He starts hogging food, water, and switches out Russell’s pillow with a rock, which is just dickish.

Blythe arrives, and explains she’s not Shivers’ owner, but asks him to help her find Twombly’s glasses.

They take off, and the pets suddenly notice some of their things are missing. Like Vinnie’s headphones. Which is odd, because I didn’t know he had headphones. In fact, he’s never worn headphones… ever. And considering headphones are something you wear, one would think we would have seen them at least once before.

Whatever, so the pets start accusing each other. Zoe even accuses Sunil of using magic for thievery. Which is ridiculous, since he doesn’t have real magical powers, that’d be ridiculous… oh… wait…

Pepper, however, has a different idea. She suspects Shivers.

Actually, she suspects Shivers stole Twombly’s glasses, which is actually impossible, since he arrived after she lost them.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. The teaser shows Twombly spinning in joy as she dances into the shop, declaring it to be a gorgeous day, and holding open the front door with a chair. Sounds nice.

Then a bunch of animals swarm in, including Shivers, as Twombly explains that the younger generations fail to appreciate the beauty of nature.

Blythe manages to shoo all the animals outside, and tells her boss that a bird is on her head, causing her to freak out. Yes, damn those kids, refusing to appreciate nature.

But, that whole scene ended with Twombly wearing her glasses, so yeah, Shivers couldn’t have nicked them.

Regardless, they confront the squirrel, but Blythe comes to his defense; Or at least, she tries to, but can’t, since he ran off.

Zoe sniffs him down, and they see him sneak out of a hole in the ceiling. He explains he was fixing something, but then, Sunil’s wand falls from the hole… Then Zoe’s lobster… And Penny’s slipper. Turns out he stole a bunch of shit, and hid it in the ceiling.

That’s a lot of stuff! How did no one notice that!?

So, Blythe starts an impromptu intervention, but Shivers claims he can quit anytime he wants! She asks him if he took Twombly’s glasses, and he says, “Actually, I don’t keep track of it all.”

Then, he realizes he has a problem.

As the pets retrieve the hot merchandise, Blythe escorts the squirrel to the park.

She explains how much he’ll love it there, as we see an MLP parody with squirrels. At least, I think it’s supposed to be an MLP parody, given the names of things, and the colour scheme. Actually, it’s a G1 MLP parody.

Shivers is skeptical, but he agrees to stay there for the time being.

So Blythe returns to the shop, and it seems Shivers beat her there. Seems he can either teleport, like the Biskits; or time travel.

She tries again, and he returns to the shop… again. So she calls a cab, and brings him to a park on the other side of town, leaving him behind. But it appears he somehow caught up with the cab after the wipe transition, jumped on the bumper, and rode it all the way back to the pet shop.

For those of you who don’t know, that’s her I’m-gonna-fucking-kill-you face.

So, Blythe suggests they help him find a tree he can settle in. Then he mentions that he already has one… at the park.

Da hell?

So he leads them to his home, and Pepper finds out why he doesn’t live there. It’s filled with crap.

That reminds me, I really need to get rid of a lot of shit.

So, one trash can, and a pointless visual gag later, Shivers’ home is better than new.

He thanks them through tears of joy, and the episode ends.

Oh, wait, no it doesn’t, because we have a B-plot to wrap up.

You see, while Blythe was searching for Twombly’s glasses, she was trying to go about her day without them, and I have a major problem with this plot.

Ever see Mr. Magoo? It’s an old cartoon about an old man who can’t see worth a shit, and is completely oblivious about it. This B-plot apes that show.

It wouldn’t be a problem, except that before this point, Twombly’s senility had never been established.

I say that because at first, she’s in denial that she even needs glasses when she clearly does. Then Blythe explains the man she’s talking to is a cardboard cutout, but she continues to talk to it. Then she confuses Shivers for her purse, failing to tell the difference between a leather strap, and a fluffy animal tail.

When she returns from her shopping trip, she ends up at Sweet Delights; dumps a bunch of sports equipment on the counter; sniffs a baseball bat, calling it a carrot; and confuses Youngmee for Blythe and a pregnant indian woman for Russell.

You see, the two stores have very different colour schemes, Russell is a lot smaller than that woman, and I don’t see how one can confuse the smell of a baseball bat with the smell of a carrot.

Then she says she has a driving test that day. So she searches the store for her driving gloves, and sticks her hands in two cakes.

None of that makes sense. She should still be able to identify general shapes and colours! Plus, blurry vision does not mean you lose your sense of smell and touch. How the hell can one stick their hand into a cake and think it’s a glove!?

This is what is known as, trying too hard. And it’s the perfect example of a good idea, badly executed.

Oh, and you may have noticed that I said she had a driving test. Well, thankfully, she found her glasses in time. They were in her purse, sitting in a bed of acorns.

Da Hell!?

So, that was the penultimate episode this season, and overall, it was a good one. One of the best of the series. I certainly found it amusing, if nothing else.

Next week, the season finale. Blythe is leaving town.

That’s the season finale? Not the series finale? Well I guess that means she won’t actually leave town, because we are getting a season two, and the show would be very uninteresting without her.

Well, that kills all the drama doesn’t it?