Mabel's Scrapbook: Petting Zoo

"Mabel's Scrapbook: Petting Zoo" is the 17th animated short of Gravity Falls to air between Season 1 and Season 2. The episode was released on March 27, 2014 by Disney XD Italy on their YouTube channel. It aired on Disney XD on June 2, 2014 as a part of their Show Me The Monday block.

Official overview
Mabel remembers when the family visited a petting zoo.

Synopsis
Mabel reminisces about past adventures and recalls the time she, Stan, Dipper, Soos, and Wendy went to the petting zoo.

While passing by various cuddly and cute creatures Mabel spots Octavia, the "eight legged cow." Mabel and Dipper run up to it as the rest follow behind, and stare at it in awe. Dipper voices his disbelief that nature would allow such an animal, to which Stan agrees and questions the nearby farmer Sprott. Sprott explains that Octavia is just one of the many blessings given to them thanks to the nearby Northwest Mud Flaps factory. The toxic sludge running off by the factory has been mutating animals who drink from the river water.

Mabel happily claims she could pet Octavia forever, and Sprott interjects that she better get all her petting done now because he's going to eat her come "cow-eating season." The rest gasp but Stan, who thinks Sprott is going to eat Octavia to gain her mutant powers, respects that. As they start to walk off, Mabel stops Stan and begs that they save Octavia from getting eaten. After noting Mabel's expression, Sprott's drooling, and an affectionate lick from the cow, Stan relents.

After the zoo closes, Soos calls Sprott, claiming to be from Pictures of Tractors Monthly, to keep him distracted as the rest rustle Octavia onto the back of Soos' pick-up truck. As they speed off, Sprott realizes they're stealing the cow and call for Emmit and D'Shawn to close the gate. With the gate shut, Stan swerves the truck into the sheep pen. Luckily there's a ramp in the pen which they use to escape. Sprott laments that it serves him right for building said escape ramp.

Parked in the woods, they let Octavia out of the truck. Mabel wishes her a farewell and Stan slaps a Mystery Shack bumper sticker on her rear. As Octavia wanders off, the rest shout their goodbyes, and Stan admits that she was alright for a mutant. As Octavia leisurely eats grass in the clearing, a falcon flies overhead. Octavia suddenly looks up at it and shoots it down with her laser eyes, immediately killing the bird and roasting it to a crisp. An elongated tongue darts out of her mouth and wraps itself around the dead bird's throat, and slowly drags it across the grass and into her mouth, and chews on it-- eyes still glowing a luminous yellow.

Everyone stares at her stunned for a moment, before Stan tells them to run. They all do, except Mabel, who digs out her camera and takes a quick snap shot of Octavia's eerie face for her scrapbook.

Cast

 * Jason Ritter as Dipper Pines
 * Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines
 * Alex Hirsch as Stan Pines and Soos
 * Linda Cardellini as Wendy Corduroy
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Sprott

Series continuity

 * While Mabel is flipping through her scrapbook in the beginning, pictures from The Inconveniencing, Tourist Trapped, and Irrational Treasure are seen on some of the pages.  The "Tourist Trapped"  pictures appear despite Mabel saying they had no pictures of that episode in The Legend of the Gobblewonker.
 * The carny who operated the "Win a Pig" booth in The Time Traveler's Pig is revealed to regularly work at the petting zoo.

Trivia

 * One of Mabel's scrapbook entries is of a dogsled race won against a space lizard, though it is unclear when this took place.
 * Octavia actually has nine legs, contrary to her name, and the banner proclaiming she has eight.
 * This short was used to test storyboard artists for Gravity Falls.
 * For Disney's first and second annual Sonara Speedway event, (where every department in Disney Television Animation and Disney Toon Studios were given a scale model remote control car to customize for a race) team Gravity Falls chose Soos' truck from this particular short. Including an image of the scene where Dipper, Mabel, Soos, Stan, and Wendy brace themselves. For the second annual event, the truck gets a small update with monster truck wheels, and a Waddles to sit on the roof.