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Replacement (Part 1)

I was glad to be out of the animal shelter. They treated me well enough there I guess, but the awful things involving needles and latex gloves would not be easy to forget. I was still coming to terms with the fact that I would not be released back into the wild. At the moment, I was just trying to put the whole situation out of mind and focus on meeting these new people. My injury from the snare was improperly healed, but to be honest, it didn't feel much different after therapy. Sure my left leg wasn't as strong as it was, but it didn't even make me limp. I think they will find any excuse to put us in captivity. Fennec foxes are getting rarer these days.

I sat in the back of my new "Owners" van. I leaned against the wall, my legs drawn in, and my arms wrapped around them. My head rested on my knees. The man and his wife sat up front, talking about me. My large ears swiveled to catch their conversation.

"But do you think its right to take him out of the wild?" The man said. "He seems healthy enough to me." The woman laughed.

"He is better off with a loving home than out in the woods with a hurt leg." I leaned forward into a squatting position and steadied myself with my paws on the backs of the backseats, peaking over to address them.

"My leg's fine. It just needs exercise to get better. I'd get plenty of that in the woods." She turned to me, her long brown hair spilling into her face.

"You've got us now, furdel." I scowled at her and lowered my ears to my head.

"I told you if you're going to use my real name you have to say it right. My name is Friedel. Friedel."

"Friedel..." She repeated. I nod. "I know you're used to being in the wild, but you can't go back now. It won't be so bad. You'll see. We're going to have lots of fun. And you can go out into the woods near our house as soon as we get you your special collar." My ears perked in excitement. However, my expression quickly changed to a concerned frown. I cock my head to one side.

"What do you mean: special collar?" I tuged at the leather belt around my neck. My metal name tag jingled. "This thing isn't good enough for you?" She shook her head.

"It's just that we can't let you out until we get it. Everything will make sense after." I wasn't happy with that answer. She sounded like a veterinarian. I looked away and slumped back down to the floor of the van.

"Fine." There were a few moments of silence during which I just listened to the van roll over the asphalt. It was a terrible noise, that and the sound of the engine. That was worse. All this moving around made me sick and my head spun as we rounded a corner. I was smoothing out my tail fur when the man spoke.

"How are you doing back there? Were almost home. You remember the procedure, yes?" I hesitated for a moment.

"Yes..." They had put a leash on me and crowded around me like I was going to bolt like a feral or something when they got me into the van from the Vet. I had bitten one of the handlers my first day and they didn't take to kindly to that. I guess they remember because they never let me out of their sight since then. Now that I was with my new owners, I thought maybe things would be a little nicer. The lady said "Loving Home" did she not?

"Good." The man said. "Don't take it too hard. We just don't want you to wander off until we get better acquainted." When they spoke like that, I almost wanted to bolt like a feral. Maybe I could make it into the woods before they caught me... but they seemed so nice when they weren't talking about restraining me. Did they actually care that much? My heart skipped as the van slowed and turned. We must be here. I got up onto my knees and looked out the window. We had indeed stopped in a quaint little neighborhood. Only a couple houses could be seen through the trees. It was moister here than near the desert where I had lived before. There was a lot of grass and the trees where just starting to lose their healthy green to autumn. It wasn't so bad.

"The woods are so close..." I said, fogging up the glass.

"Yep." The man said as he took the keys out of their place beside the wheel and opened the door. The woman got out too. The crisp air rolled into the van. It did smell like autumn. I wanted to climb over the seats to try and get out their doors but they closed them too quickly. My heart pounded. I didn't want to do this again. Where was I even going this time? I saw both of them approach the back door and the man opened it. I pressed my back against the seat to get as far away as possible. My tail was flicking nervously. The man had the leash. The woman stood to his left, shielding the immediate escape route to the woods with a large towel.

"Come on out, Friedel." The man said, shaking the end of the leash. "We've got to get this done with, so best to do just that." I slowly, tentatively got on my paws and knees and crawled up to him. He put the leash on my collar with a little click. My ears where flat in shame as I swung my legs over the side and placed my foot-pads onto the driveway.

"There." The woman says. She approached and put the towel around my shoulders. She held it there for a moment as if bracing me. I shot an awkward glance about. The road disappeared around a bend, hidden by the trees. Another house stood near the bend. That was the only other house in sight. There was an old woman watering hanging plants on her porch. She looked over at us and smiled. I was interrupted by a light tug on my collar.

"Come on." The man said. "Let's get you settled in. Show you around a bit. We hope you come to like it here." I started to walk. I couldn't help but notice the woman was right behind me, her arms held out. We went through an open garage door. The room beyond had been cleared and a large cage stood in the corner. It had a circular bed with blankets laid down around it. A few newspapers filled one corner, and an empty food bowl and a water spout hung from the other.

"I'm going in there?" I said, pointing a claw at the all too familiar metal grid work. The man nodded.

"Unfortunately. You'll only be in here a short time, though. We promise." The woman smiled at me.

"Do you want to come inside for a bit? See what it looks like? Once we get you settled here, you can live inside. You might want to pick a spot to put your bed and whatnot." That sounded nicer. I nodded once and I was ushered inside by my collar. The interior was much more welcoming than the Veterinarian clinic, or the shelter. It was warmer, and it smelled better: like people, and old wood, and a bit of dust, but better. The floor was hardwood near the entrance, but farther on, it changed to carpet. My claws taped on the floor as the man lead me onto the carpet. There where fabric couches with pillows on them. A coffee table rested in the center. I looked at the longest of the three couches longingly.

"What do you think?" The man said. I was surprised when he let go of the leash. I moved slowly away from him and sat down on the couch, letting the towel slip off my shoulders onto the floor.

"Do you mind?" I asked. They shook their heads. I settled myself down and nestled my head on a pillow.

"It's nice here." I said absent mindedly. "Better than the shelter." I raised my head up and look at them. "Are you sure I can't just stay here?" They both moved to sit down on the other two couches. The woman spoke first.

"We actually wanted to talk to you for a bit, if that's alright." I sat up.

"Ok..." I smoothed the fur on my chest down as the man speaks.

"We haven't given you our names yet have we, Friedel?" I shook my head. I hadn't cared before, but I found myself wanting to know. They seemed to care a lot.

"My name's Skyler."

"And I'm Matilda." They said respectively. The name Matilda seemed familiar for some reason.

"Are you two mates?" I asked. Matilda smiled and looked down for a moment. Skyler answered.

"Yes, we are." Matilda reached out and took Skylers' hand.

"We hope to be married soon." I cocked my head quizzically.

"What is married?"

"It's when two people declare their love for each other officially in front of both their families and they take sacred vows of unending companionship." answered Matilda. That sounded so much better than how things where in the forest. It was so final. You wouldn't have to constantly be on guard for anyone stealing your mate, although foxes where known to be loyal. My ears perked up.

"That sounds amazing! I wish we had that back in the forest. I want to get married one day." My ears lost their energy and my gaze shifted down when I remembered I wouldn't be going back, at least not without escaping... or perhaps when I got that special collar. They seemed to know what was troubling me.

"Oh..." Skyler said. He got up and sat next to me. I looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then he petted me on the head. He ended each stroke with a scratch behind the ears. It felt good, so I let him.

"It's alright, Friedel." He cooed. "You can go back into the woods when you get your new collar. There's a lot of animals around here." He stopped scratching and I turned my muzzle to him.

"Really? Like who?" He looked up in thought.

"Probably no Fennecs but I've seen a couple fox girls out the window form time to time. They had a big litter a few years back. I'm sure you could get married with one of them if you want." This was encouraging. My ears regained their energy.

"Yeah!" Matilda shook her head.

"Don't encourage him, Skyler." He scoffed at her.

"Why not? It was your idea not to fix him. It wouldn't be fair to keep him away from any eligible mates. He's going to see them anyway. There are quite a few around here." She nodded knowingly.

"That's another thing we wanted to talk about, Friedel. Be very careful out in the woods. Where letting you go out because we were told you where a wild one... But there are many aggressive males around here that might get angry at a newcomer. Not all of them are foxes. Got it?" I nodded. The prospect of getting back out was incredible, and if what they said was true, there were a lot of animals for me to meet.

"Don't worry about me." I said. "I stay out of trouble. Plus, some of those males might be cute. The only danger is they might distract me from finding a female to marry... unless you can marry males too?" I blushed a little as Skyler and Matilda looked at me funny.

"So... you like the males too, Friedel?" Skyler looked concerned. I hoped this wasn't a problem. I knew humans could be more judgmental than animals.

"...Yes. Do you not like that?" They were both silent for a moment, then Matilda spoke.

"It's okay. Let's just wait for your collar and we'll see what happens." There was a pause. Skyler broke into the silence.

"Do you like the house? Do you want to explore some more?"

"Yes." I answered. We got up and they showed me the rest of the house. After a few rooms, the air of tension from the previous conversation lifted. We started talking again, and I was able to focus on exploring. I made sure to smell each part of every room we went to, and touch every piece of furniture. Finally, we came upon the last room, upstairs. It was completely empty, and featureless save for one window overlooking the backyard and the woods beyond. It smelled musty, but there was something else there too. Almost like the fresh plastic bags of needles the veterinarians would open.

"What's this room?" I asked.

"We thought you might move in here when you're ready. This was going to be for our baby but... It didn't work out." I could tell Matilda and Skyler where sad.

"Did the baby die?" I said, hopping I wouldn't make them relive their pain. Matilda nodded and closed her eyes. Skyler put his arms around her. He explained that Matilda can't have children anymore. I felt bad for her and for Skyler. I approached her and put my arms around her too. She shifted her embrace to me, rubbing the fur on my back.

"Oh. You're so sweet, Friedel." As her arms tightened around me, I withdrew from her. I had to prove I was gentle, but it was hard to be that close to her for that long. It felt suffocating, almost like she was going to attack, but I didn't think humans worked like that. It did feel nice to be called sweet again.

"You're sad. I want to help." I said my ears down.

"I know. Thank you. You will help. Actually..." She looked at Skyler. "We got you to keep us company, mostly. You're like the child we'll never have. You mean a lot to us." I didn't know what to say.

"It's true." Skyler said. "We want you to be comfortable here and know we love you." Matilda nodded.

"In fact, we would like you to call us mom and dad if it's alright with you." I wasn't sure about that.

"Umm... I'm glad you care. I don't think I'm ready to call you my parents... It will make me miss my old home in the forest too much." I saw the disappointment on Matilda's face. Skyler seemed more understanding. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what you two have done for me. You trust me enough to be off the leash in the house... that means a lot to me." Matilda reached out and petted my cheek. It didn't feel as good as when Skyler scratched my ears, but I let her. She loved me. Besides, I would get out sooner if I gained their trust. I couldn't' help but feel like there was a deeper connection than that now though. I felt like I really cared.

They feed me real meat for dinner. It was a cheerful change from the dry food at the shelter. I thanked them very much for it. Now Skyler lead me by my leash to the garage.

"I'm sorry to do this but we have to. Just for a couple days. You understand, right?"

"I understand." I said in an almost defeated tone. I didn't like the leash, but it made me feel something for Skyler, like I was his. It was a comfort in some sense. We crossed into the colder air of the garage and he opened the door to my cage. I got down on all fours and climbed in. He took off the leash as I did so. I turned around in the small space and looked up at him. He shook his head.

"Don't give me those eyes. You know you're too cute for your own good." He turned and went back into the house. "I'm going to turn the light off now. Try to sleep alright?"

"Okay." The light went out and he closed the door to the house behind him. It was dark for a moment, then my eyes adjusted. Now that I was alone, I could feel the pressure on my bladder that I had been ignoring. I'd learned that you should hold it or people might be angry with you. These newspapers where surely for this purpose though. I settled myself over them and released. I felt a little guilty. I didn't want to have to have them clean up after me. If they let me outside, I would not have to go through this. For now, I tried to be glad I didn't have to go anymore. After taking a drink from the water spout, I moved into my bed. I turned around on my paws and knees twice before curling up, entertaining a silly thought of chasing my tail. I remembered the blanket and pulled it over me. It was cozy, much better than the shelter. In fact, my nest in the forest wasn't this comfortable. I might be able to sleep here. I thought the couch was good, but now I wanted to take my bed with me when I moved into the house. It sickened me that I aspired to get into the house. I should be free, running with those foxes that were apparently plentiful in this region. I thought about what the foxes here would be like; orange no doubt, and a little bigger than me. Skyler was at least six inches taller than me so they would probably be about four. I imagined a beautiful fox vixen that was without question waiting for me out there. Then she was replaced by a dashing rouge of a man, giving me a sly smile. As usual, I couldn't decide which one I liked better. I felt myself becoming aroused and I squirmed under the blanket. I won't do this here! I thought to myself. I reached over to my arm with my teeth and bit at my fur. The pain distracted me and I was able to calm down. That was one thing that I couldn't do here. I refused to do that to them. I wondered at how humans can control themselves when they too are animals as I fall asleep.