Gideon Grey was packing up for the day in his local bakery when in the distance he saw a battered looking fox with his clothes torn and dirt all over him. It was his own pup Graham. He was crying so hurtfully.

Gideon rushed out of the bakery and picked him up.

"Son! What happened?"

"Some kids beat on me!" he sobbed. "They were beating because I'm a fox! They punched and scratched me and they rubbed dirt all over me, Daddy!"

Gideon brought his son into the bakery and called the police to keep an eye out for these bullies and have them arrested. He was angry of the fact that his sweet, eight-year-old child was beaten up just for being a fox. This shook Gideon back to his youth when he brutally bullied young kids smaller than him.

Gideon gave Graham a cool glass of water and hugged him for a while kissing and cuddling him until his crying calmed down. He took his child home and ran him a warm bath to wash the dirt and cuts off him. After drying him, Gideon took Gideon to the kitchen and put a plaster on his face and legs, wherever he was scratched. After that, Gideon took his son out into their beautiful garden and sat on a bench, Graham sitting on his lap as they watched the sun set.

"Why are there mean animals, Daddy?" asked Graham.

"There are just some things in life you can't help," said Gideon.

"I wish everyone was you, Daddy. You're the kindest person the whole world and it would be a better world if they were."

With a guilty look on his face, his father said, "Actually, pal. Daddy wasn't a nice fox to begin with."

"You were! Only yesterday you helped a baby bird back up to its nest."

"I wasn't. Believe me, son. I was a mean jerk. I stole, I lied and I always hurt young ones smaller than me."

"You were a bully?" gasped Graham in shock.

"I was once," said Gideon, "but son -"

His son buried his face into his paws and burst into tears.

"Son I made the wrong choices."

"I don't wanna speak to you ever again."

And he ran sobbing into the house.

Gideon sat on the bench distraught. He knew he was wrong to be a bully. Just as he thought he had escaped it all, he had now angered his son who had been hurt this afternoon. Every paw scratch he memorised in the past, he felt on himself.

He waited until the evening. He foxed his son a slice of vanilla cake with raspberry jam, warmed it up and took it up to his room. He peeped through the keyhole and saw his son lying on his bed looking at a huge frame of both father and son: his first birthday, baking a cake together, swimming together, playing together, play fighting together, tickling each other, feeding ducks and riding on his father's back.

He slowly came into his room with the plate.

"I brought you your favourite cake, Graham," he said rather timidly.

He placed it on the side and sat on the bed with his son looking at the frame.

"We had a lot of fun then didn't we?" he smiled at Graham.

"Remember when you were in a deep sleep at the beach and I buried you in the sand?"

"Little tyke you were," laughed Gideon tickling his son.

Gideon sat straight on the bed with the frame in both hands as his son rested his head into his plump belly like a pillow. They admired their memories for a whole hour until they looked at Graham's first birthday,

"That's my most favourite memory," said Gideon.

"Why?"

"Because I was beginning to become a daddy."

"I'm sorry for saying I don't wanna speak to you anymore, Daddy. That was mean."

"We can all be quite mean in life, boy. But everyone changes. Just like Daddy did."

"I just need to get used to what you told me," said Graham.

"While I'm here with my favourite little guy, how about how we take a picture of us?"

He reached for the camera by the bedside and took a picture of him and his boy.

Gideon heaved himself from the bed and said let's warm your cake slice up then.

The cub jumped up and cringed onto his neck and said, "I love you, Daddy."

"Oh, I love you more than you love me, tyke. Daddy's special little cub and you always will be."

After his cake, the two switched the TV to watch a baking programme. Though in his pyjamas, Graham still felt a little cold, so he wrapped himself into his father's huge, bushy tail.

"Comfy?" chuckled his father warmly.

"Yes, Daddy," said Graham. "I love your tail so much I want it for winter."

"More than a nice warm, fox hug?"

"Both equal," laughed Graham as he nuzzled into his father's side while warm and comfortable in his tail. "What got you to change, Daddy?"

"You won't get angry if I tell you will you?"

The cub shook his head. "I already was. I forgive you, Daddy."

"Okay," said Gideon unconfidently. "It all started when I was at a fair. A small young badger was passing by with ten dollars. I grabbed him, scratched him and took the money away, but then two police officers showed up and put me in the clink. A month I spent there until I was introduced to catering. There I was getting prepared and ever so bored but as I was being instructed I started to grow to like it. I was let out soon after for good behaviour and I was so happy. Not that I was free, but so I can start again and do something better with my life. And I have. I'm a successful baker and now I have my own little tyke."

To which he started tickling his cub everywhere and Graham started to take over and they both rolled over each other teaching each other and eventually hugging each other. They watched the show for another while while Gideon's child slowly started to close his eyes.

Gideon carried him off the bed, tucked him in and kissed him on the forehead.

"Do you think those bullies will ever change, Daddy?" he whispered.

"I'm not sure," said Gideon. "But after my experience and if they get caught, they might."

"Goodnight, Daddy," said Graham slowly as he drifted slowly to sleep.

"Goodnight, pal," smiled Gideon as he closed the door slowly.

He decided that tomorrow he would take them both to the beach. Just the two of them - hopefully that would Graham's mind off everything today and will enjoy burying him in the sand (which he secretly enjoys himself).