Runaway Ralph

Ralph is frustrated by Chum’s continuous noise and bothered by Chum’s tendency to bite his owner, Lana. However, Chum defends his actions by pointing out that he has some rights, even if he is a pet. Chum introduces Ralph to the concept of philosophy—sitting for hours on his wheel thinking about life. Ralph begins to question whether his contentment with his situation is wise. Chum demonstrates his willingness to work for treats, stuffing his cheek pouches with sunflower seeds to entertain the campers. Ralph questions whether it’s worth it to hurt himself for sunflower seeds, but Chum insists his approach works.

When Garf comes to feed Ralph and clean his cage, he tries again to coax Ralph into taking a sunflower seed, but Ralph is still afraid of Garf. As Garf leaves the craft shop, Aunt Jill interrupts him and sits him down. She asks why Garf has been breaking the camp rule that no one is to be in the craft shop alone. Garf threatens to run away, and Ralph surprises himself by wanting to warn Garf against it and recognizing that Garf may be the kind of boy Ralph needs after all.

Jill asks Garf where he wants to go, and when he can’t name a destination, she asks him what he wants overall. He gives a list of things he doesn’t want, and Jill challenges him again to say what he does want. Finally, after Aunt Jill patiently allows him to think, Garf says he wants to be alone. Aunt Jill shows him where he can be alone, in the bamboo clump, without breaking camp rules. She sets him up with a project to make a sign for Ralph’s cage.

As the afternoon wears on, Garf keeps working hard on his sign. Aunt Jill places her official signature on the sign declaring that Ralph is Garf’s personal mouse and hangs it above Ralph’s cage. Garf smiles and ventures back into the camp as Ralph begins to gather his courage to talk to Garf.

Garf’s sign for Ralph’s cage initially bothers the other campers, and they pester Aunt Jill to let them feed Ralph. Aunt Jill holds firm and insists that Garf caught the mouse, so it’s his mouse to feed and care for. Catso, having widened the hole in the screen again, keeps slipping into the craft shop. When he does, Aunt Jill tells the campers to evict him, and usually, Lana holds him like a baby and carries him outside.

Ralph is frustrated by his confinement in the cage and Garf’s newfound contentment, which keeps Garf both not running away and never alone with Ralph. He thinks fondly of his time at the hotel, grudgingly admitting to himself that he even misses his little siblings and cousins. He dreams of his motorcycle and his old freedom, becoming more apathetic as time creeps forward. Garf, in contrast, begins to make friends and builds a wooden boat with some other campers.

One day in the craft shop, Ralph watches Karen make a piggy bank from a bleach bottle. She takes off her watch to scratch her arm, setting the watch next to Ralph’s cage. Aunt Jill notices Karen likely has poison oak and sends her to the nurse, leaving the watch behind. When the campers leave for lunch, Ralph senses danger.

Catso pushes in through the enlarged hole in the screen door. He jumps onto the table next to Ralph’s cage. As Ralph waits, terrified and anticipating an attack, Catso bathes himself slowly. Then he’s distracted by Karen’s watch, ticking next to him. Catso bats the watch around, picks it up in his mouth, and carries it with him out of the craft shop and into the bamboo clump, abandoning it for the lure of fresh kitchen scraps.

Ralph recovers as the campers have lunch. When they start to sing, Garf comes outside but follows the rules and swings in a tire swing instead of coming into the craft shop. Karen and her friends rush into the craft shop a few minutes later to look for Karen’s watch, but it’s been stolen. Karen’s friends immediately accuse Garf, but Karen tries to maintain objectivity. They go to Aunt Jill and tell her about the theft.

Aunt Jill addresses all the campers and asks that whoever took the watch put it back. Although no one overtly accuses Garf, he knows he’s suspected and goes to be by himself in the bamboo.

Ralph and Chum discuss Garf’s predicament. Chum says that Garf will avoid the craft shop until the watch is found to avoid more suspicion. Ralph worries that he won’t be fed and decides he must escape. Just as he decides this, he hears Garf softly making a motorcycle sound. Garf has found Ralph’s motorcycle but can’t hear the small mouse call to him from the craft shop window. Ralph is excited that Garf is the right kind of boy to understand him but quickly remembers that the only way he’ll get a chance to talk to Garf is if he escapes his cage.