The next day, CatDog mostly spend the morning exploring the town, while Judy was at her new job. They stop at a restaurant for lunch and Dog beg Cat to get ice cream, at first Cat said no, as he was planning to go after dinner, but after some arguing, Cat finally olibluge and went to find an ice cream place. They finally manage to find one in town.
The interior of the ice cream parlor was the archetypical image. There were three dispensers for soft drinks, with a napkin dispense and a canister for multi-colored straws. The walls were decorated in pink and white stripes, with the logo "J" placed on the walls of the counter. Four stools of red cushion lined the counter, with the other side facing the window stored with three two foot popsicles of red, blue and yellow. There were also shelves for topping with a large bag of peanuts by the bottom where the ice cream vats lay in a cooler. CatDog got in line and they suddenly heard an argument.
"Listen, I don't know what you're doing skulking around during daylight hours, but I don't want any trouble in here, so hit the road!" The owner told a red fox firmly.
The fox had green eyes, a green Hawaiian shirt, a purple stripe tie and light cream pants. And their was a little fox who look like he was two years old, he had a red pacifier and a purple elephant costume.
"I'm not looking for any trouble either, sir. I simply wanna buy a Jumbo-pop for my little boy," The fox told the owner as he stood next to the tiny fox beside him who was in an elephant costume and was sucking on his pacifier. "You want the red or the blue, pal?"
The tiny fox walked up to the glass and pointed to the cherry jumbo pop.
"Okay, come on, kid, back up," The elephant owner scolded the tiny fox before looking at father. "Listen, buddy, what? There aren't any fox ice cream joints in your part of town?"
"Uh, n-no. There are, there are," The fox replied. "It's just, my boy, this goofy little stinker, he loves all things elephant, he wants to be one when he grows up."
The tiny fox puts on an elephant mask and makes an elephant toot sound.
"Is that adorable?" The father smiled.
"Aww," Dog said.
Cat also felt kind of bad, but he also felt something was up.
"Who the heck am I to crush his little dreams, huh?" The fox shrugged to the elephant. "Right?"
"Look, you probably can't read, Fox, but the sign says 'We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone' so beat it!" The elephant owner glared at the fox.
"You're holding up the line!" A female elephant scolded the father.
The little fox gave a little sad toot.
Dog couldn't stand it, he had to help. "Cat we have to help."
"No Dog, we can't interfere," Cat spoke.
"But Cat look at him, he looks so sad," Dog pointed out.
"I said no Dog, besides, I have a feeling something's not right," Cat said.
Before Dog can argue a familiar voice beat him to the punch.
"Hello? Excuse me?" Judy stepped up.
"Hey, you're gonna have to wait your turn like everyone else, meter maid," the owner told her.
"Meteor maid?" CatDog both asked.
"Actually, I'm an officer," Judy said as she showed her cop uniform. "Just had a quick question, are your customers aware they're getting snot and mucus with their cookies and cream?"
Before an elephant couple, could take their first scoop of their recently served cookies and cream flavored ice cream, they stopped altogether when the spoons in their trunks were just about one inch away from their mouths. They exchanged the discomforting glances of repulsion and tremor.
"Ewww!" Cat all but gagged out.
"Yuck!" Dog agreed, even though he always eat garbage, the thought of eating snot from everyone's noses made him sick.
"What are you talkin' about?" The ice cream parlor owner glared at Judy.
Stepping up next to the predator she began to explain, "well I don't mean to cause you any trouble. But I believe that scooping ice cream with an ungloved truck is a class three health code violation."
Going wide eyed at what it was the rabbit was saying The elephant turned around to his employee who was holding a ball of the frozen soft serve in his bare trunk before dropping it and wiping his trunk on his uniform and walking into the back.
"Which is kind of a big deal." Judy finished while grimacing at the obvious repercussions with a off chuckle. "Of course I could let you off with a warning if you would glove those trunks and...I don't know...finish selling this nice dad and his son a…what was it?" she asked quietly.
"A jumbo pop, please." he said clearly and respectively in a soft voice as his son bounced happily next to him eyes begging slightly as he did.
Both Judy and the fox had their own paws clasped in front of themselves with smiles on their muzzles. "A jumbo pop." she repeated and finished her sentence from earlier.
"Please with a cherry on top?" Dog give the elephant owner with puppy sad eyes.
The tiny fox then tooted his pretend trunk.
With that and not wanting to deal with the trouble anymore the ice cream parlor owner groaned in defeat and rolled his light blue eyes. "Fifteen dollars," he said giving in to the request with a tired look across his large face.
"Thank you so much," the fox in the tie said genuinely to the elephant as he shook his paws together. "Thank you," he also said honestly to the kind officer and the canine twin who helped him while reaching into his pocket for his wallet, but unfortunately he didn't feel it in any of his pockets. "Oh no, are you kidding, I don't have my wallet," he exclaimed shocked as he came up empty. A nervous chuckle was about all he could do before speaking. "I'd lose my head if it weren't attached to my neck, that's the truth," he said out loud with a grimace then turning to his young son and holding his paw. "Oh boy, sorry pal. This has got to be about the worst birthday ever. Please don't be mad at me," he said while giving his sad kit a small kiss to the forehead.
And it's his birthday? Once more Dog felt a pull on the emotional strings of his heart seeing the display in front of him and his twin brother feeling sad himself for the two mammals having a bad day.
"Thanks anyway." the green eyed fox said sadly to Judy as he began walking his son to the door as he pointed back beggingly.
"Cat, could I please buy the jumbo pop for them, please?" Dog said, giving him the puppy eyes to his feline half.
Cat groaned, on one hand he didn't want his brother to go waste his money to the foxes he doesn't know, on the other hand maybe he was just paranoid and the fox was just a father who was just trying to make his son happy. He sighed and finally obliged. "Alright, you can by a jumbo pop for them."
Dog cheered, "yay! Thank you Cat!"
Determined Judy knew that there was still one thing she could do, she and Dog hopped up onto the counter putting down more money than necessary for the family to buy them a jumbo pop. "Keep the change," they both said to the owner before he rolled his eyes and got the ice cream in exchange for the money.
"Officer and you dog, I can't thank you enough," the fox smiled as he carried the jumbo pop while Judy held the tiny fox's hand. "So kind, really. Can I pay you back?"
"Oh, no, my treat," Judy smiled. "It just, you know, it burns me up to see folks with such backward attitudes toward foxes. I just wanna say that you're a great dad and just a... A real articulate fella."
"Yeah you're a good person and a very good dad to this cute little guy." Dog said as she smiled softly at the fox.
"Well that is high praise. It's rare that I find someone so non-patronizing. Officer..." The fox began.
"Hopps," Judy said proudly. "Mr..."
"Wilde. Nick Wilde," Nick said as he smiled at Judy.
"I'm Dog and this is my big brother Cat, we're CatDog," Dog introduced himself and his brother.
"Yeah, hi," Cat muttered, not in a mood to be social with the fox.
Dog elbowed his brother, "don't be rude, say hi."
Cat groaned, "hello."
"Well Nick Wilde it was wonderful getting to meet you and this cute little guy," Dog said as he gently pets the young fox on his head.
"You too CatDog and Hopps." Nick said.
Judy soon bent down to the tiny fox, "and you, little guy, you want to be an elephant when you grow up? You be an elephant. Because this is Zootopia," she smiled to him before giving him a ZPD sticker. "Anyone can be anything."
The tiny fox tooted in response.
"Ah, boy, I tell him that all the time," Nick smiled as he gave the tiny fox the jumbo pop. "Alright, here you go. Two paws, yeah. Oh, look at that smile, that's a Happy Birthday smile! All right. Give them a little bye-bye toot-toot!"
The tiny fox then tooted to Judy and CatDog before leaving with Nick. Dog and Judy soon tooted back at the tiny fox.
"Bye now!" Nick says as he gives his kid the jumbo pop before leaving with him.
"Goodbye!" Judy and Dog shout in union.
"See Cat, he's not as bad as you thought," Dog pointed out. "Like mommy always said, never judge somebody-"
"Before you get to know them, I know I know." Cat finished, as he rolled his eyes. "You know, I hate it when you used that against me."
"Well, I got get back to work, see ya guys later," Judy said, as she went back on patrol.
"Bye Judy," CatDog waved their friend good luck.
A little while later, after they spend the day looking through stores, CatDog saw Judy still on parking duty. They wave at her and she wave back.
Judy was in the middle was sticking another under the windshield wiper on the front of a car when she spotted a familiar face from across the street. The son of Nick she'd helped was walking out from the back of a red van still wearing his elephant costume.
"Guys, look it's that little fox," said Judy, leaping over a red convertible, waving her hand at the child as CatDog turned to the little fox.
"Hey, little Toot-Toot…" Judy's voice trailed off as she watched the most peculiar thing. Yes it was little Toot-Toot as he was so named, but he wasn't acting nearly as innocent as when she and CatDog met him inside that ice cream shop. He was standing underneath a storm drain coming off of a roof filling up jar after jar with some sort of red liquid. Following the river of liquid upwards Cat saw the source was that giant jumbo popsicle melting in the heart of the sun with the red fox next to it.
Once the entire thing had successfully melted Nick expertly climbed down from the rooftop landing next to his buddy. All of the jars were full so he and the smaller fox carried the liquidized frozen treat into the back of the van. As they drove away down the street Cat and Judy were even more shocked to see the smaller fox that they the both took to be a child in the drivers seat.
But Dog was just impressed, "wow, I never know baby foxes can drive," he grinned.
"Because they don't," Cat said.
"Maybe… he's older than he looks?" Dog hesitantly say.
Now completely suspicious CatDog and Judy left Judy's post to follow the two foxes at a safe distance. The trio located the van deep inside Tundratown.
"Do you see them?" Judy asked.
CatDog searched in multiple directions until Cat spotted a familiar red bushy tail over a rise of snow.
"There they are," Cat said.
The conjoined twins and Judy carefully made their way over hiding behind a pile of plowed snow. Peaking around it they finally figured out what these two foxes were up to.
"Toot-Toot" was leaving deeply indented paw prints in the snow and placing popsicle sticks in each and every one of them. Then Nick was pouring the strawberry flavored liquid into the holes. These guys were converting a single Jumbo Pop into tiny miniature ones. The question is where were they taking them?
The two foxes soon led the trio into Sahara Square in front of a bank. Nick now had all of the popsicles sticking out of snow piled up inside a cooler. This time CatDog and Judy remained in the rabbit's vehicle monitoring him from around a corner. He seemed to be waiting for something to happen and when the street clock struck five in the afternoon they discovered what. In a neat procession a large number of Prairie Dogs wearing clean and well pressed suits exited from the front doors of the establishment.
Waving one of the popsicles in the air, Nick called "popsicles! Get your popsicles!"
That certainly got the attention of the Prairie Dogs leaving in one straight line out of the Lemming Brothers Bank. Nick handed each of them a popsicle while at the same time accepting the money they handed him. None of the Prairie Dogs stopped to chat or eat. They merely munched on their treats and kept on walking. As they passed by an array of recycling bins one of them tossed their finished bare sticks into the bins.
As soon as they were out of sight the side of one of the bins was kicked open from within revealing "Toot-Toot" lugging three carts filled to the brim with empty popsicle sticks. He loaded them into the truck and the two of them were on their way again.
This time the two crooks brought them all the way to a construction sight in Little Rodentia. Here a team was busy with building new apartment buildings and apparently were expecting a new shipment of lumber for their supplies.
Unloading all of the sticks and setting them in front of the mouse in charge, Nick said "Lumber delivery."
"What's with the color?" The boss asked referring to the stained red coloring on the wood left from the popsicles.
"The color? It's red wood," Nick said, thinking fast on his feet.
From where they're was hiding Judy growled angrily at what she was witnessing and quite frankly Cat didn't blame her. He scammed off his little brother! He was gonna give that fox a piece of his mind.
CatDog and Judy patiently waited until who they now identified as a fennec fox had been given his share of the money and left in the van before confronting the person they knew to be the leader of this operations. When Nick's partner in crime drove away he immediately saw Judy and Cat standing there with a deadpan expression on her face, while Dog was angrily growling at the fox.
Arms crossed, disappointed, Judy said "Well, we stood up for you, and you lied to us. You liar!"
"Yeah, liar, liar plants for hire!" Dog growled, glaring at him.
"Um, it's pants on fire, Dog," Cat said, correcting him.
"Oh." Dog was quiet for a moment before he angrily looked at Nick again. "Liar, liar! Fire in the pants!"
"It's called a hustle, Sweethearts. And I'm not the liar. He is," Nick said, pointing in the direction of his accomplice.
Judy and CatDog look at their left, but there's no one there. Then they look back at Nick again, but he was not there anymore. Then they turn right, they saw him walking away.
"What? How did-" Cat flabbergasted.
"How did he do that?" Dog asked his already confused brother.
"Hey!" Judy shouted as, she and the brothers chasing after Nick.
"All right, slick Nick, you're under arrest." Judy announced.
"Really, for what?" Nick said sarcastically as he puts a popsicle stick in his mouth.
"Gee, I don't know. How about selling food without a permit, transporting undeclared commerce across borough lines, false advertising..." Judy explained, but he was cut by Nick when he showed his permit and receipt of declared commerce.
"Permit, receipt of declared commerce, and I did not falsely advertise anything. Take care."
"You told that mouse the pawpsicle sticks were redwood." Dog scolded angrily as he lets out his finger, pointing at Nick.
"That's right. Red Wood. With a space in the middle. Wood that is red." Nick inserted the popsicle stick in Dog's paw as demonstrated.
"You can't touch me, Carrots and PussyMutt I've been doing this since I was born," Nick boasted.
Cat then growled dangerously at the con artist fox, "nobody calls me a pussy," he warned.
"Yeah, and how dare you call me a mutt!" Dog added angrily, as he also didn't like the nick name the red fox gave him.
"You're gonna want to refrain from calling me Carrots," Judy grunted angrily.
"My bad, I just naturally assumed you three came from some little carrot-choked Podunk, no?" Nick said.
"Uh no," Judy scoffed, irritated. "Podunk is in Deerbrooke County, and we grew up in Bunnyburrow."
Rolling his eyes in annoyance, in a spiteful mocking manner, Nick said "Okay. Tell me if this story sounds familiar. Naive little hick with good grades and big ideas decides, 'Hey, look at me! I'm gonna move to Zootopia where predators and prey live in harmony and sing Kumbaya. Only to find, whoopsie, we don't all get along. And that dream of becoming a big city cop? Double whoopsie. She's a meter maid. And, whoopsie, number three-sie, no one cares about her or her dreams. And soon enough, those dreams die and our bunny sinks into emotional and literal squalor living in a box under a bridge till finally she has no choice but to go back home with that cute, fuzzy-wuzzy little tail between her legs to become…' You're from Bunnyburrow, is that what you said? So how about a carrot farmer. That sound about right?"
As Nick kept going on and on CatDog inwardly winced because he was hitting things right on the dot. Judging by the lackluster expression steadily crawling its way onto Judy's face she knew it too. Judy was left speechless not really knowing what to say to that.
"Hey now, that wasn't very nice!" Dog growled.
"Oh really? So are you two her friends or something? Who cares?" Nick scoffed.
"Well, Judy did! She saved us from two bullies when we're kids, back in Bunnyborrow! And you should be impressed!" Cat crossed his arms.
"I'll be impress if I seen it myself, but I didn't see it. So I don't care, PussyMutt!" Nick mocked.
"CatDog!" CatDog corrected.
"Whatever."
Ca tries to hold his anger, this fox is worse than Winslow, back at home. Winslow was a rat living in their hole who always pranks and makes fun of the two brothers, Dog naively sees Winslow as a friend, while Cat sees more of him as a pest. And Nick was almost similar to the blue rat. Then he and Dog saw Judy as she tries to be avoid by being step by a rhino.
"Be careful, now, Carrots, or it won't just be your dreams getting crushed," Nick cautioned.
Judy and CatDog rushed up in front of Nick, and go face-to-face at him, still in an angry mood.
"Hey! No one tells me what I can or can't be! Especially not some jerk who never had the guts to try to be anything more than a popsicle hustler," Judy said, stubbornly, eyes narrowed. She'd been sticking up for herself and her dreams for years. She wasn't going to stop now.
"Yeah!" CatDog agreed.
Bending down and speaking slowly to Judy and CatDog as if they're idiots Nick said "All right, look. Everyone comes to Zootopia thinking they can be anything they want. Well you can't. You can only be what you are. Sly fox, dumb bunny, freak shows."
"I'm am not a dumb bunny," Judy responded.
"We're not freaks," Dog choked his tears in.
Cat patted his canine brother's shoulders in comfort, as he glared daggers at the fox for making his sweet little brother cry.
"Right," the fox pointed to Judy's feet. "And that's not wet cement."
Judy and CatDog looked down, seeing that Judy's feet are sinking in wet cement.
"And you both aren't normal at all." The fox said to the two conjoined twins.
Judy tries to get out from the cement, and Cat grabbed the bunny's arms and pulls to help her unstuck.
"You'll never be a real cop." Nick said to Judy. "You're a cute meter maid, though. Maybe a supervisor one day. Hang in there!"
Judy and CatDog looked at each other sadly, thinking that Nick might be right. But they still think for themselves that they'll prove to him that he's wrong about them.
