Gibbs a jeho tým přijíždí zajistit muže podezřelého z pašování drog přes základnu. Když dorazí na místo, najdou námořníka mrtvého a McGeeho napadne jeho pes. Zdá se, že se voják stal obětí svého vlastního vlčáka. McGee zvíře zraní, ale Palmer a Ducky ho ošetří a odvezou ho k Abby, aby prozkoumala, zda vlčák skutečně smrtelně útočil. Abby si psa oblíbí a je přesvědčená o jeho nevinně. Když se psův zdravotní stav rapidně zhorší, Ducky a Jimmy ho operují a vyjmou mu z žaludku hrot nože. Je tedy jasné, že námořníka někdo zabil a pak se to snažil zamaskovat jako napadení psem...

The team pulls up in 2 cars, with a warrant to search a Petty Officer's house and bring him in for interrogation on drug trafficking charges. Ziva, Tony and Gibbs enter through the front door and Gibbs sends McGee through the back door. Tony kicks the front door in and enters. and as McGee is about to head into the back sliding doors, a german shepard leaps out and attacks him.

Gibbs, Ziva and Tony find the house clear, but the dead body of Petty Officer Hanson on the living room floor. Tony says, "we gotta stop serving warrants after lunch. $10 says McGee spills it on this one." Ziva asks where McGee is and a shot goes off. All three run out to the back yard and find McGee getting off the ground, injured and bleeding and the german shepard whining and bleeding on the ground from a gunshot.

Palmer is checking out the dog and determine it was a "through-and-through" shot. Tony jokes it's good McGee wasn't a better shot. Ducky is wrapping McGee's hand and asks when he had his last tetanus shot and McGee replied the last time he and Dicky Newsom had fought over the galactic wand of Obie Wan Kanobie. Tony said "So last year sometime." Ducky goes to give the dog a shot to alleviate pain and Palmer gives him advice on where the shot should best be given. Palmer replies he'd spent two years working as a veterinary assistant during college and offered to patch the dog up. Ducky left him to it as he went inside to process Hanson's body. Gibbs called Ziva and Tony back inside to help process the crime scene and sent McGee back to the lab with the dog "Butch." (Later renamed Jethro by Abby.)

The deceased is revealed to be Petty Officer Kyle Hanson, dog handler working with the Drug Enforcement Unit. Ducky finds bite marks, torn flesh and and says Hanson died from being mauled by a dog. Tony makes a sarcastic remark about Ducky solving the case and Ziva asks if he woke up in the wrong bed. Tony said, "if your question is did I wake up on the wrong side of the bed the answer is no. But my mood did sour some when I walked in and found out our chief suspect was dead." Ducky determined Hanson had been dead for 36 hours. They remarked how had they gotten to him sooner, they would have gotten information on the drug trafficking. Tony said "Thanks to Semper Fido, he's (Hanson) never going to roll over." Gibbs glares at him and Tony apologizes and Gibbs puts his index finger up in front of Tony and says "Play dead."

Ziva calls Gibbs into the bedroom. Tony walks in ahead of him, sees Ziva bent over looking under the bed and says "Room with a view" as he takes a picture of Ziva's backside. Gibbs comes in behind him, says "hey" and head slaps Tony. Ziva pulls a packet of ripped cocaine underneath the bed and Tony finds a bundle of money in one of the drawers.

McGee pulls into the garage and Abby ask what happened. McGee tells her a vicious dog attacked him and he was shot. Abby runs to the back of the car and finds "Butch" with his legs bound and a muzzle on. She removes the muzzle and clips the binding off his legs. McGee tells her the dog is vicious and that Ducky and Jimmy sedated him. Abby asks who shot the cute little dog and then turns on McGee for shooting an innocent animal. Abby said "dogs don't kill people, people kill people." Abby takes McGee's jacket and covers the dog and McGee asks if she's aware she's compromising the evidence with his $500 jacket. Abby says, "If you think I can't distinguish the fibers on your stupid jacket with the evidence on the dog, you don't know me McGee. And right now, I don't want to know you." She pets the dog and says "good dog" then points to McGee and says "bad McGee."

Back at the office, Jenny came down and approaches Gibbs and says she had just gotten a call from Pax River Base Commander talking like the case was closed. Gibbs said what they found was a dead end, the case was still open. Jenny says the commander claimed the had gotten their man but Gibbs says they got one link and still had five suspects. Jenny said from the commander's point of view, the got their man so the problem is solved. Gibbs asks if that is her point of view. She says she can sympathize with his patience and Gibbs said she could sympathize, he would continue to investigate. Jenny said she couldn't afford to waste resources if the trail had gone cold. Gibbs said "Director the only thing that has gone cold is the body in autopsy." Jenny said the clock would be ticking and she would inform the base commander that Gibbs would be prudent in his disruption of the commander's operations.. She walked away as Gibbs watched her. Jenny turned around and quietly asked if there was something else but Gibbs remained silent, then turned and walked away.

McGee walked into the office and Tony asked if they checked him for rabies. McGee said they hadn't and Tony kept looking at him so he asked "what". Tony called him Cujo and explained the movie plot line to him (dog got rabies, started biting people in the town - their brains began swelling up and they were foaming at the mouth). McGee took out a CD and checked his mouth in the image. Ziva said he didn't have rabies and told Tony to stop getting him all worked up for nothing. Tony said "she's right McGruff, but you might want to worry about our dead Petty Officer's blood as it was on the dog and he might have had transmittable diseases like herpes or hepatitis or malaria." Gibbs came in and started asking for information and updates. Ziva explains that a Pax River C130 goes to Cuba every week like clock work. McGee pulled up the flight records and crew on the flight and they came up with 5 suspects. Tony says he has no leads, Ziva's flirted with every Petty Officer on the base and McGee's watched 100 hours of Petty Officer Junction" and McGee says "150 actually." Gibbs tells them to go back to the base and talk to the other dog handlers and Tony said "to see if one of them barks, I know." Ziva and Tony pack up to head out and Gibbs quietly asks McGee if he's okay, to which McGee replies he is.

In her lab, Abby is swabbing the dogs mouth and says "that's a good Jethro" and Gibbs walks in and said "I'm a good Jethro." Abby smiled and said "don't be mad be flattered. He's so strong handsome and quiet so that's why I named him Jethro." (The dogs name was originally Butch but Abby said she renamed him because "Butch" was just too butch.) She tells Gibbs she got all the evidence but has no results yet. Gibbs keeps saying "Abbs" and she tells him she knows she shouldn't get attached to the dog because of what they think he's done and Gibbs says he's glad he doesn't have to tell her. Abby is hugging the dog and Gibbs tells her the dog belongs in a kennel but Abby claims he's innocent but at Gibbs' stare, Abby puts the dog in the kennel. Abby tells him she swabbed the dogs mouth and the victim's wound and she's going to prove the dog's innocence. Gibbs leaves and Abby bends done to let the dog out as Gibbs yells from the hallway "the dog stays in the kennel Abbs." So she locks the kennel door again.

Ziva is questioning a Petty Officer, showing him pictures and the PO said he doesn't know everyone or everything. Ziva remarks that his shoulders work much better than his mouth because each time she asks him a question, he just shrugs. He says he works with dogs, not people. She asked him about Hanson and the PO shrugged again. She got upset and said "You don't like us being here do you. Is it because we're cops interviewing cops or is it because you guys could not sniff out who was smuggling drugs and we have to do your job for you. The PO puts his head down and apologizes, saying he didn't know Hanson all that well. The PO finally says that Hanson was a showboat, liked to flaunt the cash and told Ziva to draw her own conclusions.

Tony questioned PO Erica Perelli and she said she didn't like to speak ill of the dead but Hanson couldn't keep complete control of his dog. Tony asked what would happen if the dog got a taste of cocaine and she said it would be bad. Tony said "it must be a pretty ruff job. I don't wanna dog ya with more questions but if I need to sniff around some more is there a number I can call." She squashed him said the folks inside keep track of her pretty well, he could check with them and walked away.

In autopsy, Ducky and Palmer are checking out the wounds on Hanson's body. McGee walks in and Ducky asks if he's gotten his shots. McGee said he felt like a dart board but guessed it was better than being a chew toy. Ducky said if McGee was looking for his findings, he'd have them in a minute. McGee said he just wanted to know what the symptoms of rabies were and Ducky said Palmer would explain why McGee didn't have rabies. Gibbs walked in and asked if Ducky had the results; Ducky said he had enough. He went to hand the results to Gibbs but Gibbs said "oh no, we're going do this one together." He put his arm around Ducky and led him out the door, up to Abby's lab.

Abby was dancing with Jethro, playing Nellie McKay's "The Dog Song." Abby greeted them and asked Ducky if he'd met Jethro. Ducky said "quite a number of years ago" and Abby laughed and said not him, the dog. Gibbs told Abby that Ducky had his findings. Ducky said that Petty Officer Hanson had been mauled and had a neck wound that severed his carotid artery that made him bleed to death. Gibbs asked if Abby understood what Ducky was saying and Abby said yes, that Hanson was killed by a dog but Jethro was innocent. Abby said she found pieces of Hanson's flesh in Jethro's teeth. Gibbs said that sounds innocent. Abby and Ducky compare notes and Abby believes that Jethro was trying to drag and save Hanson, not kill him.Ducky argues that Hanson was trying to protect himself from a dog that was trying to kill him. Abby said she still had a lot of evidence to process and hadn't gotten the DNA results on the saliva yet. As she said it, the results came on her screen as a positive match to those of "Butch" aka Jethro. When Ducky said "Butch", Gibbs handed him the dogs collar with the name Butch engraved in it.

Up in the pit, Ziva, McGee and Tony are reviewing surveillance footage from the airplane and crew they know are behind the drug trafficking. They see a hand-off and realize it's a bag of Funjuns. Gibbs walks up and asks what they got and Tony said "a sudden urge to hit the vending machines." McGee says "besides eye strain not much boss." Tony announces that the group "Pax River Panama" will be shipping out in 36 hours. They ask Gibbs if they should bring the crew in but Gibbs said they would go to them instead, catch them off-guard. Gibbs calls for Ziva and Tony to go with him as his cell rings (it's Abby telling him she's got something) and he tells them to meet him in the car. McGee says "Boss" but Gibbs walks away without responding.

Gibbs shows up in the lab and Abby has him look into a microscope. He says "its a bug" and she said it wasn't just any bug but a flea. Ducky found a flea on Hanson's body but when Abby checked Jethro, she didn't find any. Gibbs said the flea could have jumped off the dog onto Hanson and Abby said it would never hold up in court. Abby holds up Ducky's report and Gibbs asks if she read the rest of it. Abby said that sometimes Ducky is wrong, not often, maybe one time." Gibbs puts his coffee down, puts his hands on Abby's arms and says "Abbs, we have to give the dog back." Abby says he knows what it means and he tells her she can't keep the dog. Abby looks like she's about to cry and argue back but looks away and agrees. Gibbs pats her arm, grabs his coffee and starts to head out. Abby says she'll give Jethro back after she's done collecting evidence off him. Gibbs turns back and asks her how much more evidence she needs; they got the dog's saliva on Hanson, blood in the dogs teeth and the dog attacked McGee. Abby opens the kennel and tells Gibbs to look and asks him if Jethro looks like a killer. Gibbs said Abby is just making this harder on herself. As Gibbs gets off the elevator, he stops when he sees Ducky approach Jenny with a file. Jenny notices Gibbs watching and puts her arm on Ducky and steers him up the stairs to privacy.

While McGee is reviewing more surveillance footage, Petty Officer Erica Perelli shows up to collect Jethro. She notices McGee's wounds and asks if he was the one who shot the dog and remarks that the bites look like they were pretty bad. McGee stutters as he says that he's been bitten worse but he loves dogs and owns one. She asks him if he does and he says no, not yet but soon very soon if the right girl comes along. Then covers his mistake and says "girl dog, I want a girl dog. I like boys but.." Gibbs walks in and says "don't ask don't tell McGee." McGee introduces Perelli to Gibbs and tells him why she's there. Gibbs remains silent as Perelli says the dog has to be put down due to navy policy in fatal dog maulings. McGee offers to bring her down and Gibbs just stares at him and then leaves. McGee and Perelli agree to go by first names and McGee says that Abby has grown quite attached to the dog. Perelli worries about how attached when they walk into the lab to discover both Abby and Jethro missing.

Gibbs pulls up to the hanger, gets out of the car and takes out his badge, announcing NCIS. Tony says "gather round boys we're gonna have a chat." The commander says they are going on a training mission and Gibbs says they aren't. Each of them take one of the crew members and interrogates them. One of the Petty Officer's tells Tony it's bull-crap and Tony said if by bull-crap you mean this is your worst freaking nightmare then your right, this is bull-crap. All three of them interrogate the crew and come up with very little information. When they are leaving, Tony asks if Gibbs think they are all involved and Gibbs replies no. Ziva asks if he thinks they rattled them and Gibbs replies "we'll see."

Abby pulls up to the base in a rather classic (ZZ Top type) car, bright red with her music jamming and Jethro in the passenger seat. When the base guard asks if he can help her, she pulls out her NCIS badge and says she's looking for fleas. The guard says yes ma'am and lets her through. Her license plate reads "4NS CHIK." Abby pulls up in front of Hanson's house and let's Jethro out. Jethro has other ideas and bolts across the street towards a wooded area. Abby chases after him calling "Jethro" and two seamen running by stop and one of them says "I'm Jethro." Abby catches up with Jethro who is digging in the dirt. She puts the leash on him as her cell phone rings. She greets McGee who asks her where she took the dog. Abby admits she went to Hanson's house but tells McGee that he'd better get everyone down there as she thinks they have another body. She is starring at the ground Jethro just dug up and sees skeletal remains.

The team has shown up and Ducky and Palmer are unburying the bones. Palmer is standing over Ducky, brushing dirt off some remains and the dirt lands on Ducky. Ducky says "be careful Mr. Palmer, we're trying to unbury bones, not buy mine." Jethro barks and McGee says the dog should have a muzzle on it. Abby tells McGee he should have one on as it's not like Jethro shot him. Gibbs gives Abby a look and she acknowledges she shouldn't have taken him out without permission but points out that Jethro might have found another important clue. McGee remarks that it could also be another of his victims and Gibbs says "or maybe it's his lunch." Ducky replied "Only if he's a cannibal Jethro, the remains are canine."

Back in the pit, Tony comes out with what he believes is a clue on one of the crewman, Warfield. It appears Warfield had a cousin who had been busted for drugs a few months prior and was currently MIA. Gibbs tells him to keep digging and Ziva hands him more information on Warfield. Gibbs reads it then hands the file back to Ziva and says "Fetch." As Ziva and Tony are walking out, Petty Office Perelli walks by. Tony says hi to her and she calls out "Hi Timothy" and he responds "Hi Erica". Tony makes a remark and Ziva replied "maybe she prefers McGee's scent."

Perelli and McGee go down to Abby's lab so Perelli can take Jethro back. When they arrive, Abby has locked herself and Jethro in her office and won't come out. She turns up her music to ignore McGee's knocking and voice. She tells him she won't open the door until Jethro is proven innocent. McGee tells her to not make a scene and she says she is in "full scene mode." McGee says she can't stay in there forever and she tells him she is stocked with Caf-Pow (she has a big thermos full of it!) and kibble (big bag) so she's good for a few days. She goes back to sit down and Jethro starts barking so McGee hides behind Perelli.

In Interrogation, Ziva questions Warfield. When she brings up his cousin, he asks if it's all about his loser cousin who he is not even close to. Ziva says "close enough to give him some of the blow you smuggled in" and Warfield denies smuggling anything. Ziva says they are aware that his plane brought the drugs in every 3 weeks over the last 3 months like clockwork. Warfield said that 2 months prior he didn't fly the plane back, he remained behind in sick bay in Panama. Ziva pulls his file which shows he was admitted for a respiratory infection but signed himself out for a 3 hour period for 2 consecutive days. Warfield finally admitted that he was involved with a woman who had a child who needed the medication. So he faked his illness to get medication for the child. Ziva listed the charges that could be brought against him and said she smelled a dishonorable discharge in his future. She told him she'd forget everything he told her if he'd confess what he knew about the drug smuggling and Warfield said he knew nothing. When Ziva joined Gibbs in observation, they agree that Warfield wasn't involved.

Gibbs leaves interrogation and gets on the elevator. Jenny ends up getting on as well and says "your investigation." Gibbs replies it's moving along and turns and stares at her. Jenny hits the emergency button and stops the elevator; she turns and says "you've been looking at me all week like you want to ask me something." He asks her if she has any health issues, she says she's fine. He asks if she's sick and she restarts the elevator and says her health is fine but his could take a turn for the worse if he doesn't wrap up his investigation.

Jenny shows up at Abby's lab and asks if there is a problem. Abby says there is no problem so Jenny tells her to open the door, which she does. Jenny comments that the dog doesn't look so good and Abby pouts that it's because he knows he's on death row. Jenny bends down and pets him. Abby argued that she had to fight for what she believed in and she wouldn't give up the dog until he was proven innocent. Jenny said "sometimes things aren't so simple Abby. Sometimes you can't control the outcome. Sometimes you have to look at the reality in front of you and accept it." Abby said "I can't, I won't." She bent down to pet the dog and realized he truly didn't look well.

McGee entered the pit and sat down to review the surveillance tapes on the big screen. When he hit play, he jumped out of his seat as dogs began barking. Tony replaced the surveillance CD with the movie "When Dogs Attack." Gibbs walked in and Tony noticed he'd gotten an email from Abby. The cocaine they found in Hanson's house had traces of hydraulic fluid on the wrapping. They realized they needed to question Petty Officer Bidwell further. As they grabbed their badges and weapons to leave, McGee called "boss" and Gibbs told him to "come on." (which put a big smile on McGee's face again!)

The team showed up at the hanger and began searching the plane Bidwell was working on. Ziva walked into the cargo area and found a pool of blood. She climbed over 2 large pallets only to discover Bidwell had been murdered. The team began to process the crime scene, and when Gibbs exited the plane, Tony handed the finger print to McGee and told him to dust for fingerprints "only on the surfaces he could find a print" and then said "the whole plane."

Abby rushed an ill Jethro into autopsy and asked for Ducky's help. Jethro had gotten ill and coughed up blood. Palmer brought over the x-ray machine and they took an x-ray of Jethro's stomach, which revealed there was a triangular shaped object in his stomach that didn't belong there. Palmer sedated Jethro and he and Ducky did the surgery and removed the object. Gibbs called in to have Ducky come to the base to get Bidwell's body and Ducky told him they'd found the tip of a knife in Jethro's stomach. Hanson had a mark on his neck that didn't fit with the dog's mauling and the blade Ducky found in Jethro's stomach was a perfect match. Upon further investigation, the knife blade fit perfectly into the wound they found on the remains of the dog they'd uncovered the day before. Ducky said the two crimes were related.

Gibbs went back to the plane and called for McGee. Tony said it was a big plane and processing it for finger prints would take all night. Gibbs said "I hope you brought a warm coat DiNozzo." McGee took pleasure in returning the finger printing case to Tony and told him the same thing Tony had said to him about dusting only on the flat surfaces where he could find a print.

Back in the pit, Abby went to McGee to get him to donate money for flowers for Jethro. McGee inquired why he would want to donate for flowers for a dog that mauled him. Abby said that "dog is a man's best friend or maybe because I'm a forensic scientist and I could boil you up from the inside out and not leave a trace." McGee stuffed money into Abby's jar as Gibbs walked in. When they reviewed the surveillance tape, the killer had parked their vehicle just right so they weren't caught on film. McGee got a match to the knife tip and it was a navy issue tactical boot knife. They did a search for anyone requesting a replacement knife since Hanson's death and came up with one name they recognized. Gibbs sent McGee to the evidence locker to get evidence log 421.

Back on base, Gibbs and Ziva confronted Petty Officer Erica Perelli. Ziva asked if she'd received her replacement knife and Perelli asked how she had known about it and then said "not yet." Tony asked what happened the knife she'd been issued 3 years prior and she said she lost it; Gibbs said "in Hanson's body." The team revealed that Perelli and Bidwell had framed Hanson when they learned of the investigation into the drug trafficking and made it look like Hanson had been killed by his own dog. Perelli planted the evidence in Hanson's house to make it look like he was behind the drug smuggling. They said she'd killed Bidwell because she didn't believe he'd hold up under interrogation. Perelli said she wasn't a lawyer but did they really believe their case, which was based on her requisitioning a new boot knife, would hold up in court and Gibbs said "nah". She smugly said I didn't think so. She asked if they had a warrant as she started to put her dog in the car and McGee said it was in his coat pocket. Another Petty Officer walked by and said "seek" and his dog started barking at McGee. Tony joked that McGee still had that magic as McGee removed the evidence item from his pocket which was cocaine from the crime scene at Hanson's house. Gibbs held the cocaine in front of the dog and he didn't react and he said "your dog don't hunt." Perelli put the dog in the front seat and Tony said she'd killed her dog and replaced him with an attack dog because she needed one who wouldn't react to cocaine. Ziva walked up and told Perelli she was under arrest for the murders of Petty Officer's Bidwell and Hanson. As she went to slap the cuffs on Perelli the dog started barking and went to attack but Ziva pulled Perelli out of the way as McGee shut the door before the dog attacked. Tony said "you just seem to attract all the sick puppies Timothy."

McGee walked into Abby's lab and she was sad. Abby said that Gibbs had gotten permission for her to keep Jethro but her landlord said no. She wanted to find him a new home and then worked on McGee to take the dog home. She introduced them to one another and told them to shake. When neither moved, Abby told Jethro he'd have to be the bigger man so Jethro lifted his paw and McGee shook it.