A/N: English is not my native language so sorry for any mistakes.

Matt was typing with a smile on his face as his colleagues were chatting around him. The twenty eight year old bunny was working as a programmer at a small company. He had a rather common brown shade of fur with a lighter cream color on his chest and belly and was wearing blue jeans with black shirt.

Their lunch break was coming up and he was habitually glancing at his phone. Every time he did, his brown eyes shined with anticipation. His good mood was rather infectious.

He and his team worked in an open space. Desks were placed next to each other in rows for optimal use of space. Mammals were used to other mammals moving around them and they learned to ignore it. The bunny was already imagining the kind of reaction he would get when he announced the news. It was for this reason that he did not notice a spotted hyena approach him from behind.

"Did you have time to look at my code?" The hyena asked.

Matt instinctively turned towards the source of the voice. The first thing he saw were sharp black claws in front of his eyes, followed closely by a massive figure looming over him. Matt squeaked and jumped in his chair. His long ears were pointed towards the hyena, ready to react to any sound of danger, and his nose was twitching like crazy. With a few deep breaths, however, he seemed to calm down.

"Sorry about that..." Matt smiled and rubbed the back of his head while he avoided the hyena's eyes. "Yes, I did."

The bunny turned towards the computer and opened the window with hyena's code. "Quality's great, but you'll have to change your sorting algorithm. It isn't fast enough. This is going to be the main part of our program so every microsecond that we can get counts."

He turned towards the hyena and this time looked him in the eyes. Matt had to crane his neck just to face him head-on.

"It's going to be executed many times over, and it adds up over time." The bunny smiled nervously. "In general, users prefer it when programs work fast."

The hyena nodded. "I'll fix that after lunch. It should be done before the end of the day."

Matt's smile warmed up. "Sounds great! If that's the case, we'll be right on schedule."

The bunny checked the time on his phone. "It's already time for a break."

Matt asked, "Would you like to join us?"

The hyena shook his head, "No, I'm fine, thanks." He smiled, but it didn't seem to reach his gray eyes.

Matt watched as the spotted hyena went towards the kitchen. The bunny was still getting used to the medium-sized carnivore. Liam started three weeks ago. He tended to dress more professional, usually wearing a white button-down and a very appropriate pair of jeans. Having a predator around was rather out of the ordinary for the office. Programming companies prefer small herbivores as employees. The reasoning was rather simple: You could fit more desks for smaller species in the same office space, and prey outnumbered predators ten to one.

He rubbed his paw, nervously contemplating if he should follow Liam and apologize again. However, his mind quickly went back to the news that he had for his friends as he saw them approaching. Emma was a sheep with whom he went to the university. They had been good friends during their undergraduacy and ended up at the same company. The two of them met Tom and Owen after they joined. Tom was a hare and Owen was a gopher. The two of them were both a little older than both Matt and Emma.

They all walked to the office kitchen, sat at one of the many empty tables, and ate their salads. Matt was clenching his phone with a grin on his face.

Tom sighed, "Ok so what did you want to show us…" Matt barely let him finish before he placed his phone on the table with a picture opened.

"I got certified!" Shown on the phone's screen was a selfie Matt had taken of himself holding up his certification. Matt's expression quickly changed from overjoyed to confused as both Tom and Owen groaned and Emma extended her clenched fists in the air triumphantly.

"Pay up!" She extended her hoof towards them with a smug look on her face. Matt blinked a few times before he realized what had just happened.

"You were betting on whether or not I would get certified as a foster parent?" Matt's ears went down and bit his lower lip, showing his buck teeth. Tom and Owen avoided his gaze as they paid their dues.

"In our defense," Tom explained, "you don't seem like the dad type. Even Emma was shocked when she heard that you want to be a foster parent. And she's known you the longest out of anyone." The hare looked Matt in the eyes with an apologetic smile.

"I babysat your kits before! You always said that I was great at it!" Matt's voice cracked."You even said that my flat in the meadowlands was perfect for raising kits!" He began counting on his fingers, "It's in a green area with a lot of parks around, the building has its own playground, there're a lot of good schools and kindergartens nearby, and the apartment itself is completely baby-proofed. Plus, it's close to work!"

This time it was Tom who was confused. "Well, I mean, you got that apartment right after you graduated. You got a loan just after you started working here, right? I always thought you just wanted to avoid bunny tax… That, and you were just too lazy to take off all the baby proofing."

Emma giggled as the conversation unfolded.

"Bunny tax? I've never heard of a bunny tax before." Owen looked incredulously from the bunny to the hare.

"Landlords don't like to rent apartments to rabbits and hares. They assume they'll have to deal with a huge family and that'll wreck the apartment. So it's common practice to bump up the rent for us. Often it's just cheaper to get a loan and buy an apartment." Tom explained as though it was from a place of experience in the matter.

Owne just let out a brief, "Oh," not really sure what to say.

Emma stopped giggling as an awkward tension rose at their table. It was supposed to be a happy occasion so she took it upon herself to move it back into that direction.

"Sorry guys, but he showed me his road map for adoption back when we were in school. I guess you can say I had 'insider knowledge.' I should have a picture of it somewhere on my phone." She began scrolling through her phone.

The men at the table all exclaimed, "What!?" at the same time, each for different reasons. Tom's and Owen's eyes went wide as Matt's ears grew red.

Emma cried, "Found it!" and she placed the phone on the table for all to see. "The reason I was shocked was because he skipped a step and started getting his certification two years ahead of schedule."

Tom and Owen began to examine the roadmap.

"That's pretty impressive!" Said Owen, "So you really got that apartment with adoption in mind?"

Inside of Matt's ears had turned scarlet by now. "Yeah. I got the apartment to better my odds."

Emma smiled hearing Matt mentioning odds. Tom and Owen let go of the breaths they were holding in.

"It's like scoring points. Mammals with higher scores get higher priority when they go to adopt." Matt's ears went up when he started talking about numbers."Of course, they don't tell you that. I had to go through a number of different studies to see what the wait time for adoption was... based on the type of mammal they were, what child they were looking for, their financial situation, family life, and everything in between. And that road-map was what I came up with in the end." There was an excitement in Matt's eyes as he spoke.

Emma laughed."So you can see why I was shocked that his plan changed after he'd done so much research." She enjoyed listening to that analytical side of Matt while she ate her salad. It was one of the reasons why he was so good at programming. He was empassioned by doing research and making preparations which would ensure his success. "So how come you decided to skip the 'getting a new house' part of your plan? What made you get your certification two years ahead of schedule?"

Matt's eyes shined. "They changed the law. The minimum number of bunnies that I need to adopt is two, not three. My apartment didn't clear the requirements for three kits, but it did clear for two! Now I don't need to move!."

Everyone nodded. Bunnies were a family oriented species so kits that were only child did not perform that well compared to ones that had littermates.

Owen raised a brow as he continued reading the roadmap. "Why is 'getting a mate' not one of the steps?"

Matt lowered his ears and sighed. "Because it decreases my odds. I'm more likely to get kits if I'm a single parent that one in a homosexual relationship."

There was an uncomfortable silence at the table.

"Well, look at the bright side. You'll be able to start dating after you get your kits." Emma tried to cheer him up. Matt laughed.

"We'll see if I have time for it. I'll most likely have to move apartments, anyway. It's bad for kits' health to split the litter, so you have to adopt them all. Litters with only two kits are pretty rare so I don't expect that to happen any time soon. With a bigger apartment, though I could adopt three, four kits and litters of that size are much easier to find." Matt took a bite of his salad. "But I did it anyways, because slim as it may be there's still a chance."

"Well, would it be possible for you to adopt a kit that's fine with being separated? I mean, if you wanted to, you could even adopt a species that isn't a bunny, right?" Suggested Owen but Matt waved his hand dismissively.

"Legally, I could, but it's not for me. I always imagined myself with a big family of bunny kits and a nice buck at my side. Besides, I'm probably gonna to be a single parent for some time. It'll be easier for me if my kits are the same species as I am."

At a nearby table, a gray rabbit was visibly agitated. She was Matt and his friends with a furrowed brow.

"I hate mammals like that." She finally said to her companion.

Liam was enjoying a bowl of fried crickets next to her. They hadn't exchanged many words, so when she finally spoke up it threw Liam off guard. "What do you mean by that? I can't read your mind, Sara."

He was a little annoyed by the doe. She insisted on having lunch with him ever since he was hired. Most of the time he didn't mind her company. It was refreshing to have someone around that wasn't afraid of him, even if she was a little forceful about becoming his friend.

Angirly, she said, "Speciests like him." She was thumping her foot on the floor as she spoke. "Do you know what it takes to become a certified foster parent? There's months of training, background checks... not to mention you need multiple letters of recommendation. And after all of that he refuses to foster any children except bunny kits. He's willing to wait years for bunny kits when he could foster countless other species in that time."

Liam sighed and put his bowl down. He hated when Sara was in one of her moods like this. He looked to Matt and said,"That doesn't make him a speciesist. It doesn't sound like he wants to be a foster parent, it sounds like he wants to adopt. And it makes sense… Fostering, then adopting is usually what mammals do. "

"It isn't about what is easy, but about what is right. There are so many children out there in need of a home." She was explaining as if it was an obvious thing.

He replied with the same, obvious tone, "Well, if you're so passionate about it, you can always foster kits yourself."

She was quick to dismiss him. "I don't have the means to support a family. But he does, and should do something with it. He's just a speciesist." She looked at Liam. "He flinches every time you approach him and he dismisses every idea that you have. He doesn't treat other members of his team like that."There was a satisfied smile on her face as she proved her point.

Liam clenched his fist around the fork that he was holding and avoided bunny's gaze."I've only been working here three weeks. He's getting used to me, and I am getting used to how things work around here. He interviewed me for the position. I wouldn't have gotten in if he was a speciesist." He said all of that but his voice lacked his regular confidence.

"That's easy. He was forced to hire you because of the Mammal Inclusion Initiative." She said and smiled at him softly to show that she was there for him. Liam gently scratched the table with one of his claws. "You shouldn't let him treat you like that. You should report him." Another claw was added to the scratching. Vibration from his claws skipping over the uneven surface of the table relaxed him.

"I'll think about it." He continued eating his crickets, not wanting to continue the conversation.

"""

One of the perks of working as a programmer was the flexible work schedule. Matt had worked overtime during the weekdays so he could leave early that day. It was a Friday, and Matt was going to help with an event at Meadow's Orphanage for Bunnies. He had been volunteering at the orphanage since he started his training for certification. He wanted to have some real experience working with kits, and orphanages gladly accept any help. He was helping with a social event where prospective parents could meet kits, play games with them, and bond before deciding to adopt them. These events happened once every month.

Since he had been helping at the orphanage, he knew that there weren't any kits that fit his adoption profile. So instead he would be able to just relax and help other mammals find their families.

Bunnies and hares were rather unique when it came to adoption. As a species, they were very focused on a family. Infertility was cited as the number one reason for divorce among bunnies and hares. On the bright side, that ingrained need for family was great news for kits that needed to be adopted. Kits didn't have to wait long to be adopted, and as a rule they were always adopted with their littermates. It was rather common for infertile couples to adopt more than one litter at the time. But even still, bunnies in the cities didn't tend to have families as big as the ones in, for example, Bunnyburrow.

Matt Leaper was born and raised in Bunnyburrow, but moved to Zootopia for work, and added the opportunity to adopt. In places like Bunnyburrow there were few, if any orphanages. Typically the closest family took care of kits in case of unforeseen events. So in his adoption plan he had to offset the fact that he had no family in Zootopia with a good apartment and well paying job.

Matt parked his car in front of the orphanage. It was a comparatively older three-story brick building. Once, it was a school, and had since been converted to an orphanage. He smiled as he heard happy voices coming from the building before he opened the large wooden door and went in.

This place reminded him of his home in Bunnyburrow. Not the architecture, but more the atmosphere. The orphanage was alive in ways that his apartment could not compare. All kits that ended up there had a sad story attached to them, but one could hardly tell when entering the building. It was a place of healing, and of opportunity for a new beginning for both kits and prospective parents. The animals in charge were doing great work, and Matt smiled when he saw a familiar white fluffy bunny with green eyes.

"Hello, Monica. How's it going?" Of all the mammals who worked at the orphanage, Matt had the closest connection with Monica

She smiled, but her eyes wandered around until they came back to the clipboard. The hallway which the two bunnies were standing in looked like it belonged in a boarding school. There was a classy feeling in the architecture, with a lot of accents on the walls made from real wood. The designs were a subtle indicator that the building was meant for herbivores. Sharper claws would quickly destroy it.

Monica sighed. "Busy. We've been scrambling for the big event." She looked tired, but there was also a weird worry in her eyes that he couldn't explain. Then, suddenly, her worry turned to excitement."Oh! I'm sure that you'll be happy to know that B's got adopted."

"B4 or B6?" His ears went up curious, focusing on his friend.

"B6. They were just picked up today. A lot more animals have been wanting to start right away with bigger litters. But I think that B4 is close to adoption, as well. The Hoppers really like them, and they've been looking for a litter of four for a while." Matt loved hearing success stories. He hoped that soon he would be one, as well.

Monica was clenching her clipboard and Matt's ears dropped a little as he noticed it.

"Is everything ok?" He asked with concern. She bit her lip and looked around to make sure that no one would hear.

"We had a troublemaker placed with us. This kit has been in the system for a very long time, and mammals aren't willing to adopt him. Normally we'd be able to avoid it because we deal exclusively with bunny and hare kits, but since we had a good year the orphanage had few rooms open. And since nonspecific orphanages were overflowing, he ended up here. It's rather standard for kits like that to be bounced around so orphanages could focus on children that they can actually help."

At first Matt was excited when he heard that there was a kit without littermates. However his excitement dipped when he realized that the boy was not a bunny. He just nodded.

"I'm sure you can handle him until you can place him in a different orphanage. " He rubbed her shoulder for comfort. He was quick to change the subject. "Should I set up tables like last time?"

Monica nodded her head, "If you could, that would be a big help."

He left Monica to her work and went to the backyard area. It was a big green area with a nice playground. There were already kits running around enjoying the nice spring weather. He smiled as he watched kits play. One of those days his future kits will run around this playground. He just needed to be patient enough. He liked helping those kits but tried to not interact with them too much. He knows himself and getting attached to them only for another family to adopt them would be too much for him. So his jobs were mostly cleaning, helping out with food, fixing things around the building. Sometimes he would watch over kits as they play or be a judge for one of their games. Kits were adopted rather quickly so they were gone before he could get attached to them.

He opened a storage which was a small building behind the orphanage and started to pull out plastic chairs and tables for the event. He had done that few times already so in general knew how everything should be set up. Play area had wooden benches and tables for big groups to sit around and plastic tables were meant for people who would like more private time with their potential kits. When they were in place he went inside to the playroom and got a few board games and baskets with balls.

It was not long before kits started to fill the area and teachers came to watch over them. It was like a picnic so snacks were placed on wooden tables and party games were organized by teachers. It reminded him of The Carrot Days Festival back in Bunnyburrow.

Matt watched as prospective parents arrived. He was volunteering a lot and had training with many of them. It was always interesting to see how people react to situations like that. Some couples were confident and it was easy to tell that it was not their first adoption process. He really enjoyed watching couples trying to get their first litter. Over time changing from being nervous and unsure around kits to people who couldn't live without their future kits.

Hoppers were a couple like that. They started their training at the same time as Matt so he saw their journey. It warmed his heart as Britney, Beth, Bobby and Ben squicked happily and ran towards them to greet and hug them. It was truly just a matter of time before they would go home with Hoppers.

At those events his job was to just make sure that everything ran smoothly and assist if help was needed. Mammals working at the orphanage were well oiled machines so most of the time he could just enjoy watching as new families were forming. However this time he saw something that he was not really expecting. Away from all games and tables stood a young fox. He was the troublemaker that was assigned to Meadow's Orphanage for Bunnies. People in charge had to be really desperate to place a fox in a bunny orphanage.

Matt tried to ignore the fox but from time to time his eyes were wandering into the boy's direction. The fox was standing under the tree that was close to the door with both paws placed against it. His ears were folded against his head as he was looking around the area. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and gray shorts which looked nice against his red and cream fur. He had standard black markings on his ears, paws. His tail had a darker shade of red and white tip. His icy blue eyes were looking in the direction of any sudden movement. There were few unsettling things about that boy. Of course the main one was the fact that he was a fox but there was more to that. His tail was a mess. It has not been brushed in a long time. Fur on his tail was matted and standing in weird directions giving him more of a troublemaker vibe. Second thing was the way he was standing. It did not look comfortable. His body was tense and claws from his paws were digging into the bark as if he was afraid to let go. He was standing on the balls of his feet and was bent forward so his leg and belly weren't making a straight line.

Matt looked around to see if Monica was free. He wanted to ask about the fox but he couldn't find her. When he looked back into the fox's direction he noticed an interesting situation. Ball was resting a few feet away from the fox. Three bunny kits were watching it and were afraid to get any closer. The fox moved around the tree in a way that it was between him and kits and just peaked out from behind it. The fox was the size of a teenage bunny and with him being a predator he could see why kits didn't want to get any closer. The fox looked around to see if someone was going to help with that situation. When it was clear that no one was coming, the fox moved around the tree to be as close to the ball as possible. Then he pushed away from the tree. The fox made a few shaky steps towards the ball and stopped. He was still in that weird bent forward position and was walking on the balls of his feet. His arms waved around as he was trying to keep his balance. When he did regain his balance he took a few more shaky steps and finally kicked the ball very clumsily to the kits. As soon as the ball was far away from the fox, kits snatched it and ran away.

Matt was more fascinated with what the fox was doing. The boy was waving his arms around to keep balance as he was turning back toward the tree. He took one step and something went wrong. The fox fell and started panicking. He was looking around as if he was in danger. He tried to push himself up but was not able to get that balance back so he kept falling. The fox was breathing fast and Matt was worried that the boy got hurt. The whole situation got the attention of mammals around him which made the fox panic even more.

No one was moving to help the boy. Matt caught expressions of a few teachers in the area. Some tried to look away, others bit their lips nervously. No one wanted to get closer to the panicked fox. Matt shared that feeling. But then for a split second his eyes met the boy's eyes. There were the eyes of a panicked boy that couldn't get up. His heart was racing as he slowly moved to help the boy out. Matt's nose was twitching nervously and his ears were up looking for danger.

Matt was watching the boy's every move and finally he saw the boy's feet up close. They were just wrong. Ankles were too far away from toes and he didn't have heels that he could rest his body mass on. Matt's eyes went wide, ears lowered and mouth hung open. The fox was a feral. It was a common name for people with his condition. It was a birth defect that made his legs and hips more like his ancestors, so not really suited for bipedal walking. Matt reached to help the boy get up.

Sudden movement at the edge of his vision made the boy yelp in panic and instinctively slashed at the object. His claws cut Matt's shirt and dug into his forearm. Matt cried out in pain and felt the warm wetness of blood on his fur. The fox, shocked by what just happened, decided to just run away. He abandoned his plan to stand up and on all fours ran to the orphanage. Matt fell to the ground. His nose was twitching like crazy. Ears were folded behind on his back. He was sitting on the grass keeping his damaged right forearm close to his chest as Monica was running to help him.