Every year around May, a certain vixen and her family would pose for a picture. They would gather around the garden and smile at nothing in particular. While professional photographers were on the pricey end, they would make due with an old family camera on a timer. She remembered vividly how her husband would run from behind the ancient device and join his wife and young son in the short ten seconds they had. Together they all smiled without a care in the world.

But that all changed.

She stared at the album in her paws. Each year that passed got darker and darker. Their smiles slowly faded across the first four photos. It was a slow decline, hardly noticeable unless you knew what was happening.

Then the change was sudden.

The next photo was different and wrenched every part of her heart. The photo only consisted of two foxes. A mother and a son. They weren't even smiling. Only looking at the camera, afraid that breaking the tradition would end with a bad omen.

The vixen picked up the last photo before the adult fox left and stared at it. The many creases and wrinkles obsured and distorted the image greatly. She compared it to the first picture they took. She chuckled.

It was amazing how fast things could change.

In the fifth photo, the young fox wasn't able to be held in his mother's arms anymore. He was just too heavy for his aging mother. He gingerly held onto his mother's leg as the picture was taken, as if he was comforting her with his toothy grin.

She flipped past the next ten photos angrily, refusing to look at them. They would cause too much pain. Pain that she wasn't ready to bring back up. But she hadn't looked at them in years.

Why not change that.

She stared at the color faded photos, marveling at how fast he grew. How fast her son grew. She wanted to forget about him, but no matter how hard she tried, he would always be in the back of her mind. As she skimmed through the pictures, her son suddenly disappeared leaving only herself.

That was the change she wasn't ready for. Well, she wasn't ready for any change because it scared her.

The one photo before her son left consisted of many rips. Tears ran right between the two of foxes, but were taped up. Ripping the photos was something she couldn't deal with. Every time she tried to do so, to remove him, she would fix it right back up.

If only it were as simple as fixing a picture.

The next 17 pictures in the album consisted of only one fox. An old vixen who seemed to age decades every year. She stood alone, no family to have her back. But she still did it. She still stood alone in front of that camera year after year.

Part of her hoped that each year, that would change.

But it never did.

It would have been the thirty third family photo she had ever taken. It would have been a single vixen standing alone in the frame. It should have been like that. But in the middle of combing her fur, a peculiar knock originated from outside. She opened the door and froze. He stood there in the doorframe, his green eyes and bright fur gleaming in the sunlight. He looked exactly like his father.

The navy he wore brought out not only his appearance, but his smile. He looked proud and hopeful, something she hadn't seen since he was a kit. Yet she still remembered him. Perhaps it was the gold nameplate with the word 'Wilde' engraved onto it. Or maybe it was the striking resemblance to his father. Green eyes and all. But she was genuinely surprised that she still remembered him.

Because he changed a lot.

The vixen's thirty third family photo was different. It contained a new light. A new feeling. A new sense of hope. She was no longer alone, but had her son yet again by his side. This time though she was crying. Not tears of sadness, but of joy. She had been reunited and this year they were smiling.

The next years would come and go of course. Nothing too special or surprising about that. But the pictures would change. Dramatically. They would go from two mammals to three. The third was her daughter. A daughter by law that wasn't even the same species.

So the older vixen smiled. "Maybe change is for the better."