Anne Lace finds Nick by HyenaTig

“So you and Nick know each other from a long time ago?” Judy finally chimed in again. “May I ask you how you two met?”

“Well.” Anne began and moved her gaze towards the fox who just smiled and nodded affirmatively. She knew that it was a very personal story for Nick and that he didn’t want it to be known by every mammal.

“I think it was about 20 years ago,” the skunk told further. “I was walking home one evening when I heard a whimper from behind a garbage container. When I looked for the source, I found that little crying fox kid in a Ranger Scouts uniform, sitting on the cold ground. At first, I thought he got lost or that his parents didn’t pick him up. But then I saw that terrible muzzle next to him, and I knew in an instant what happened.” The old skunk sighed heavily and wiped some tears from her eyes. “You see Judy, almost every mammal has to struggle with some kind prejudice somehow. I guess even bunnies know about that.”

Of course, Judy knew about it by herself. A lot of mammals saw nothing more in bunnies than cute little balls of fluff that were just good for farming and reproduction. Nothing you can take seriously at all or that could become something like a police officer. Without the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, she wouldn’t even have a chance to prove herself in the Academy.

“We skunks have to deal with it too,” Anne explained further. “Just imagine all the disgusted stares when you want to go to a restaurant or a theater. Even taxi drivers try to avoid us as passengers, so we mostly have to use other public transport like buses or subways just to not feel the stares of the other mammals upon you for the whole ride. Waiting for an incident that would prove to them that they were right all the time, even if nothing happened for their entire lives. And so were those other kids back then when Nick wanted to join them. They just saw the shifty and untrustworthy fox and wouldn't even try to give him a chance.”

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