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The Color of Fur

A Technicolor Fox Story by Lazyfox

I

I stretched and yawned, waiting for the sleepiness to subside. It was my first morning awakening in the new tree house that I had finished after several weeks of building. I looked around proudly, then turned around and regarded Cider, my girlfriend, still curled up next to me and sleeping. I stroked her fur gently, not wanting to wake her up. Another yawn escaped my muzzle and I was about to lay myself down next to my warm vixen and doze off again when a sudden loud screeching din set my fur fully upright. Cider jumped up and looked around with bewildered eyes.

"What's happening?", she asked in an anxious voice.

"I don't know. Let's take a look. It's not like we'll be able to relax anymore now.", I replied sourly.

We climbed down the trunk of our oak. Most other gray foxes in the tree village had also come down to see what was going on. The noise appeared to come from the other side of the village. As we were heading there, the noise ceased but was replaced by the sickening sound of cracking wood. From the direction of the sound we saw a tree falling over, slowly at first, gaining speed, until it fell down with deafening cracks. We hurried towards the scene, as the fallen tree was, or had been, inhabited by a widow and her two cubs.

A semicircle of villagers had already gathered around the tree trunk. In front of the trunk the vixen was sitting, her cubs hugging against her, ears down and crying. Behind them several red foxes with chainsaws and yellow helmets were examining the tree. One of them, slightly corpulent and cigar in his muzzle, strode towards the crowd and shouted:

"What the hell are you doing here!? You're on private property. Trespassing is forbidden according to article 1.2.3, section 4.5. .. aw heck, I don't know where it says! But this land is the property of the Vulpine Parcs Company and they've ordered its total deforestation. So scram if you don't want to end up with a tree on your head."

One of the villagers, cousin of the now homeless vixen and stoutest fox of the village, approached the foreman, "You are the ones that are going to leave! You can't just do this!", but before he reached the foreman another yellow-helmeted fox came in between, blocked the advancing gray fox with one arm and punched him with the other. The villager quickly retreated holding his paws around his bleeding muzzle and mumbling curses.

Meanwhile, the foreman spoke again: "So, you are demonstrators, huh? Sissy nature freaks who want to save the forest. Tough luck for you then. The Vulpine Parcs Company has already decided to build luxurious 5-star holiday dens on this land, together with four swimming pools and a frigging golf course. So if you don't scram soon we'll get the cops over here."

"But we live here.", I stated.

"Sure you do.", the foreman answered sarcastically, "Everybody knows that foxes like to live in trees."

"Well, we gray foxes do."

"I don't care whether you're gray or red or pink or puke green. Real foxes live in underground dens."

"The last time I checked we were all real foxes. And we do like to live in tree dens. Don't you see our houses up in the trees?"

"So you want to say that those silly little huts up there is where you live, and that this land is actually yours?"

"Well, I .. Yes!"

The foreman started looking amused now and addressed his co-workers, "Well, it seems that we're going on vacation for a little while - and I don't mind that one single bit - until things are settled."

All of a sudden, the workers gathered their tools and headed out of the forest. The foreman shouted back, almost joyfully: "You better get a good lawyer damn fast if you don't want to be run over by the Vulpine Parcs legal division."

As the workers left silence returned to the forest, except for the soft sobbing from the homeless vixen. For several minutes, nobody said anything and many were yet to digest what had exactly happened. I turned my head to Cider, certain that the studies she had done in the big city would enable her to answer my burning question: "What's a lawyer?"

II

My boyfriend Berry had asked me what exactly a lawyer was. Now, after having explained him the concepts of courts of law and lawyers, he, in his bold gallantry, had declared that he would go to the city and find one for us. I bet he really did that to cheer me up. I had been very depressed after the incident and was seeing visions of our whole village moving out while our tree houses were slamming into the ground behind us. It just wasn't fair!

Again I told Berry that no red fox lawyer in his right mind would want to support us against such a powerful company. But he kept insisting.

"Not all reds are as bad as those Vulpine Parcs guys.", his reasoning was, "So I bet I'll find a helpful lawyer. The red fox who visited us half a year ago was a pretty decent guy in any case."

I had been in the city at that time, finishing my studies, so I hadn't known about that visit. He told me that he hadn't spoken very much with the red fox, but one of the people in the village, a vixen called Juniper, had often been visiting him since then.

This red fox had sparked my interest and I was determined to get to speak with him. So while my boyfriend was out, I visited Juniper. She's a nice vixen, my age, but upon mentioning the red fox she went ballistic:

"What do you need the filthy fleabag for!?"

There went my plan of her introducing me to him. But, stressing that it was for the benefit of the village, she at least told me his name: Frederick, living at the outskirts of the city, thank heaven. The last thing I wanted was attracting attention.

I set off to the city where poor Berry was still in pursuit of a lawyer. I reached Frederick's house, knocked softly on the door. A red fox appeared and opened it. His eyes grew wide upon seeing a gray vixen on his doorstep. He looked around, saw nobody else in the street and motioned me inside, led me into the living room.

"Care for a drink?", he asked while taking whisky from a shelf.

I shook my head. He sat down, filled a glass, placed the bottle next to it and took a sip.

"You are here because of June?"

I shook my head again. He raised his eyebrows. "I'm here because of your visit to our village. You didn't know her back then, did you?"

He leaned back and regarded his glass, "No, I didn't know her back then. I had been sent out as a government official to investigate the Gray Forest, to see what could be done with it."

He paused, looked at me but I waited patiently. He took another sip of his drink and continued: "I wrote a report which stated that the land was inhabited by gray foxes in tree houses. It has a high cultural value and mustn't be sold or otherwise used for development."

"And they ignored it?"

"They never even got it.", he took another sip, "Another government official blackmailed me. He is being bribed by Vulpine Parcs to have the civil service do what they want. He wanted me to hand in a report which said that the land was uninhabited and excellent for recreational purposes."

"Otherwise he would tell the press about your relationship with Juniper." This had better be right, I thought.

"Indeed. He had secretly made pictures of me and June. If those went public I would lose both my job and my wife. Interspecies relationships are nigh forbidden in our society.", another sip, "And I topped it with an interspecies liaison."

"What happened to the original document?"

"That guy, Gerald's his name, he took the document with him."

"Does he still have it?"

"How would I know? As far as I know he keeps the originals of the ones he falsified. They might come in handy later on.", he looked up at me, "If you wish to burglarize Gerald's house I would strongly advice you not to if you don't want to spend your next years in prison. His house is well-guarded with a security system. It would be a waste of one's life, especially for such a young lady as yourself."

"I won't be going alone. You're coming with me."

He looked at me wearily, "Do I have any reason to risk my career, life and everything for that?"

Because you owe us you bastard, I didn't say. Instead I answered: "You may think we grays are backwards, but some of us do have photo cameras too you know."

He stared at me with big eyes, gulped up his remaining whisky and leaned back again. "So no matter what I do I'll get nailed."

"Not if we steal Gerald's pictures as well."

He poured himself another glass and regarded it for several minutes, then sighed. "Very well, then. What do you want me to do?"

We spent an hour and four glasses of whisky making up our plan. Finally, he said: "You'll have to leave now. My wife may be coming back any moment."

As he escorted me to the door I asked: "Were you happy with June?"

He sighed, "You know how it is. Stress at work, argument with the wife. Then suddenly, I met that beautiful vixen. It was rash, but I was very happy."

"She's very sad, you know."

He hung his head, "I'll do the best I can.", and closed the door.

I walked home, reflecting upon the fact that this bluff had a remarkable semblance to the one I pulled off on my dean to allow me into college.

III

It was late evening until Berry showed up again. He looked dead tired and gave off a smell of pure frustration. He was carrying a stack of documents with him. I looked at him expectantly.

"It was terrible.", he said and put down the documents, "But we got ourselves a lawyer."

"Really!?" My ears had perked up completely. That was better news than I had expected.

"I probably visited all other lawyers in town before I met this guy. Most lawyers didn't even let me speak before they threw me out. This guy's house is actually his office as well. He said he had just started and this was his first case. I think he's even younger than us.", he paused to sit down next to me, "Even so, he wasn't cheap. Had to pay him almost all the money you gave me. And he told me that chances are slim that we'll win completely, but that he should at least be able to persuade them to let some trees standing."

I couldn't help lowering my ears again. It would've been too good to be true. I had given him almost all the money I had left from my time in the city, but I had feared it wouldn't buy a good lawyer.

"Aw, c'mon, don't look like that.", he licked my muzzle, "He looked like a trustable guy. I'm sure he'll do everything win the case."

I hugged him. It's better than nothing indeed, I thought.

"He also gave me some forms that we have to fill in and give back to him. It's about stating that we've lived here for a long time already and so on. I think that's more your cup of tea."

"Sure. I'll fill them in first thing in the morning."

"Oh, and .. umm .. there's something else. There was this officer guy and he gave some tickets which he said I had to pay within a week but .. umm,", he looked down for a moment, "well, I didn't have enough money left from what you gave me, so .. well .. maybe you know what to do with them."

I took the tickets from the stack and read them, "Trespassing on restricted property, destruction of public property, public indecency, what did you do!?"

"Well, I had to take a leak. And yes, I know that you can't just do that in the middle of the city, but where can you do it then? In the end I went into the park and waited until I thought no one was around. But then this officer came and wrote me the tickets."

"What about the first two?"

"That was because I had walked on the grass which was forbidden and according to him I had destroyed it."

I tried to hide my snickering but seemingly failed.

"What's so funny?", he grumbled.

I ripped the tickets.

"Hey, what're you doing!?"

"They won't pursue us over here, and they'll probably forget about it anyway."

"Oh .. anyway, I'm off to sleep then." He laid himself down, curled up and fell asleep right away.

I wondered whether I'd offended him. He really did his best, and got more done than I would've thought. Tomorrow I'll spoil him, I thought, and curled up next to my nice, warm and publicly indecent fox.

IV

The next night, my fox happily snoozing in dreamland with his tail over his muzzle, I sneaked out and headed for Frederick's house again. He had sneaked out of bed as well and was waiting in front of his house. We walked till the next lantern post where he regarded me. I was very sparsely clothed, wearing, in fact, only a loin cloth.

Our plan was based upon the fact that Gerald, having never spoken to a gray fox, thought we were all half-wits. So Fred told me at least. And not only that, he was a pervert as well. According to Fred he had asked him once whether he could deliver him a gray vixen for a smack of cash. Fred had declined, saying we were hard to catch (damn right!). Now, he had called to Gerald saying that he finally caught one and that he needed the dough.

"Quit staring and get that leash on me!", I sneered.

"Sure, sure."

"And don't get any funny ideas."

"Of course, everyone knows how much I love gray foxes.", he replied cynically.

In such a fashion we headed over to Gerald's semi-villa, which he never could've afforded with his civil servant's pay. Fred knocked discreetly on the door. The little peephole in the door opened.

"It's me. Fred."

The door opened. Fred gently pulled me in on the leash.

"Ah, welcome.", the red fox in the hallway said, "Glad to see you finally got one. Follow me."

He led us to his living room.

"Please let her go around that carpet. It's quite an expensive carpet you see. Can't let it get dirty."

Is this guy for real?, I thought. I had the sudden urge to stand on the carpet and soil it. But I could do that afterwards as well. The next phase of the plan was that Gerald would fetch a drink for Fred and we would wait next to the kitchen door and inject a fast-working anesthetic into him when he came back. Pretty foolish plan when reflecting upon it now.

The red foxes sat down.

"Please put her down beside me, will you? She doesn't bite, does she?"

Want to find out?, I thought.

"No, she doesn't.", Fred mumbled and motioned me next to Gerald.

"She really is beautiful. Nice catch." He stroked my ears. I pretended to like it. Then suddenly he leaned over and started licking my muzzle.

"Ah, shall we discuss the price over a nice glass of whisky?", Fred interjected.

"Be patient.", Gerald growled and pulled me toward him. He licked me intimately, half-drooling over me and started groping forbidden places.

I grabbed his muzzle with my own and bit with full force. He tried to shout but could not. He pulled away, struggled to get me off but I did not loosen my grapple. He started hitting me with something. I almost couldn't hold on any longer when his hitting got weaker and finally stopped. I let loose. He fell to the floor, a pool of blood forming around his muzzle and a syringe sticking out from his behind.

"Serves you right, you bastard! This is even better than our original plan."

"We are so dead.", Fred mumbled.

I took Gerald's key ring, "Let's go find his archives."

Eventually we found it in the cellar. I unlocked the giant filing cabinet. Instantly an alarm sounded throughout the house. I uttered a popular gray fox obscenity denoting the male genitals, and started searching the document.

"It's not under 'G'.", I shouted.

"Look under 'L' for 'land development'."

There it was! I snagged it and was about to run out when Fred exclaimed: "The pictures! I need to find the pictures!"

We threw out half the contents of the filing cabinet. I shouted: "They aren't here! They might've been a bluff!"

"No, they must be here!"

"We have to go now!"

He uttered a popular red fox obscenity denoting the female genitals.

We ran out of the house, but stopped when we saw police cars coming down the street. We went to the back of the house but were halted by a large barbwire fence. I heard the police arriving in front of the house.

"Quick, climb up the wall!", I urged and went ahead, document in my muzzle.

"But .. I can't .. oh hell!"

He started climbing in his clumsy red fox way. When I reached the gutter, I heard a slip and a cry below me and suddenly a heavy weight was pulling on my tail.

"Let go! I can't hold your weight.", I hissed.

"No! I'll fall! Pull me up!"

Almost I lost grip of the gutter. I lashed out with one of my legs, scratched him in the face with my toe claws and he let go. I heard a muffled thud from below and a shout from the police officers. I climbed upon the roof, walked to the other side and stealthily jumped onto the roof of the next house, and from there onto the next roof, and so forth.

When I reached the edge of the city I jumped into a tree. I paused to catch my breath and nurse my mistreated tail. Then I climbed down, took the document out of my muzzle and started walking into the direction of the village. Halfway I suddenly noticed that I still had the leash around my neck.

V

The sun had already started to rise when I reached the tree house. I quickly put the report under the stack of other documents which I had been filling in during the day. I suddenly felt dead tired. I went to where my fox was sleeping, and curled up next to him. Curse him for waking up right at that moment!

"Oh hey, Cy! Awake already?"

I groaned, "Let me sleep."

"Aw, not feeling very well, huh? Better go back to sleep. I'll make you a good breakfast later on."

The loudest chainsaw could not have woken me up that day.

VI

Several days later the court of law was held. Berry invited me to come, but I had declined, judging it better not to show my face there for a while. I had made sure that he brought the whole stack of paper with him and told him to have the lawyer check it very carefully.

A rustling sound came from below the tree. My fox was home again. I was trembling with curiosity to hear the outcome. I would've liked to see the faces in the court when the report was made public.

He came climbing up, slumping miserably, his whole body emitting an air of defeat. He sat down quietly, next to me.

"What's happened? Did it go wrong?", I asked with a panicky voice.

"We lost.", he said softly and hung his head, "Completely."

"But you did give him the documents, didn't you!?" I felt sick.

"I did. And he did show them in court. It made no difference. They aren't required to leave even one tree, and we're forced to leave. Tomorrow the workers will return.", he sighed, "The Vulpine Parcs lawyers even stated that we would be a public health hazard if we were allowed to stay."

Health hazard, I thought angrily, Yeah, we'll just all go and soil every carpet in the city. But my thoughts didn't go further as my boyfriend had collapsed over me and cried, sobbing wildly.

VII

Morning arrived, after a mostly sleepless night, which my vixen and I spent keeping each other warm, despite the fact that the nights were still mild. And with the morning arrived the red fox workers. Cider and I stood up, saying nothing and climbed down the tree where we confronted the workers.

"Hey, sleepyheads.", the foreman said, "I told you guys the Vulpine Parcs legal division couldn't be messed with. You not only lost but I got orders to clear this tree first thing. Nothing personal, just doing my job, so don't hold it against me."

I blurted out: "You red fox scum! This is my house! I finished it only days ago so you can't just saw it over!" I kept standing in front of the tree, refusing to move.

"Temper, temper. Hey Jake, could you please help mr. and mrs. gray fox here!"

A rugged looking worker came and took us by the arm, pulling us away. I struggled at first, but it was no use. He was too strong. And Cider seemed to have given up completely already. We were escorted to a log on which he seated us.

"Now don't cause any more trouble."

Cy hugged me, her face in my chest, and cried softly while the workers got their chainsaws running. When they started sawing, I found that I simply couldn't watch anymore, so I buried my face in my vixen's fur.

The sound of a police siren started mixing with the awful sawing sound. At first, I thought it was my imagination, but there, at the edge of the forest, I saw movement. Cider sat up abruptly. A smell of fear was rising up from her. She was looking in the direction of the police car, her eyes wide open. The workers had now stopped their sawing to see what was going on. I could hear a car door opening and voices shouting.

Whatever this is about, I thought, I will not let them do anything to Cider. I stood up, preparing to interpose between her and the police. But the red fox who came running toward them I recognized as our lawyer.

"Court order!", he shouted, "Cease all sawing!"

He arrived out of breath and handed over a paper to the foreman.

The foreman read it quickly, "Seems we're both lucky again. Ok guys, more vacation." The group of workers gathered their tools and left yet again.

I looked at the lawyer. He explained, still catching his breath, "I almost overlooked that one document you gave me. It wasn't part of the original package that I gave you, so I thought you gave it by accident and wanted to give it back. Then I forgot it, until I found it last night. I immediately contacted the officials who are going to force a court order against Vulpine Parcs. The outcome is likely to be that nothing may be built on this land and you can stay here."

I regarded my vixen questioningly, but she wasn't moving, just staring ahead, unable to say anything. Probably shock, I thought.

I went over to our tree trunk and examined it. To my relieve it hadn't been sawed through too far yet. Possibly a large storm might blow it over, but that was a concern for the future. I returned to where our lawyer was standing.

"Hey listen, thanks for helping us such a great deal. Cider and I are going to take it easy now, but I'll come by at your place tomorrow and buy you a drink, ok?"

And after a "Sure. Always glad to help." we watched him walking out of the forest, vanishing through the trees.

Epilogue

This was an excerpt from the diaries of two gray foxes, Berry and Cider. The diaries were found in the ruins of a tree hut of which the supporting tree had presumably fallen down in the hurricane that struck the Gray Forest four decades ago. It provides an excellent example of the early - and often strained - relations between the two vulpine races, and is the first recorded event in history in which the two races managed to coexist peacefully. More information about this topic is available in our upcoming book Vulpine Relations. In our next article we will present a discussion on gray fox social structures, interrelationships and courtship.

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