Life Is Ruff

Plot

The movie begins at a grocery store where a box of free puppies is outside. There are 6 puppies in the box, five black puppies and a Labrador retriever. Soon children come and four black puppies are taken to a home. Soon only two puppies are left in the box then a little boy and his mother come and take the remaining black puppy. Only the golden puppy is left in the box and on that raining night he escapes to the streets. A year later, the yellow Labrador retriever, named Tyco, is eluding animal control. Eventually he is caught and taken to the pound.

Calvin Wheeler (Kyle Massey) is a popular boy at school who collects comic books in his spare time. Calvin's best friend is Raymond Figg (Mitchel Musso), who prefers to be called Figg. He saved Figg's life in the second grade when Figg had an Asthma attack, and Figg, very devoted, manages his schedule and occasionally does his homework. Gotham Man is the name of Calvin's favorite comic. His collection is complete, except for one issue that is ever-so-rare, the first one, which is worth $3,000. When a show-dog runs after Calvin while skateboarding, he finds out that when one wins a dog show, they earn major cash. The cash prize is $5,000 which Calvin needs to buy the first issue of Gotham Man.

Calvin goes to a dog rescue shelter and adopts Tyco. A girl and a volunteer at a run down animal shelter, Emily Watson (Kay Panabaker), believes that this had to be another one of the crazy schemes or plans that Calvin has in mind. So she interviews Calvin and judges him a good owner for Tyco, as well as she says yes when Calvin asks her to the upcoming school dance, until she realizes that he's entering Tyco in a dog show. But there is someone else who wants to make sure Calvin and Tyco lose and that is Preston Price (Carter Jenkins), a stuck-up rich boy whom he and his dog have won two of the past dog shows. When Calvin and Tyco perform great at the first scene, Preston is mad and jealous. Preston also hires people to beat Calvin up and later to pretend that they are Tyco's real family, but when the three main characters realize that this is not Tyco's family, Figg and Calvin come up with a plan. He convinces Figg to pretend he is selling magazines and to fake an asthma attack. When this happens, Calvin runs into the basement and rescues Tyco while Figg is still acting. Emily forgives Calvin. This is the day of the dog show and they decide to go. Calvin's dad drives them there. Of course they are not prepared so they come up with a last minute routine of Tyco pulling Calvin on his skateboard. Preston scores a 98 and Preston, worried that Calvin will win, sabotages Calvin to lose, however, this only gets Preston disqualified for the sabotaging. Still, Calvin and Tyco beat Preston by one point and get a 99/100. Along with using that money to buy a comic book he uses the money for good. He gives the money to the shelter so that the dogs can have better homes. In the end, the shelter is saved and Figg along with many other people adopt a new pet.

Cast