Dale was on her 'phone, talking to Bobby about the new mall thing when it happened.

Everything seemed to lurch and the cell 'phone lost connection. An earthquake? Not in Illinois, unless it was one of those fraking things? But there wasn't any fracking going on here, was there? And why was Max freaking out downstairs?

Dale got up and headed down stairs. Max, her goofy German Shepard, sounded frantic, and what was that? A voice?

"Hey, is someone down there?"

"Help!" A high thin voice, not a kid's, but ?

Someone in the house? She cautiously came down the stairs to the living room. And there was a small someone hiding behind the laziboy, with Max frantically trying to get at him. Someone small kid size, in a costume, maybe? One of those 'furries' she heard about. Animal costumed freaks and geeks.

And Max was in a frenzy to try to get at him.

"Come here you crazy." She grabbed him by the collar to pull him back, he was really hyper about the intruder, but he'd always been a bit protective, and having an uninvited stranger in the house was sure to set him off.

She could tell that the kid was absolutely terrified and she called out. "What are you doing in here?"

"I don't know!" The kid sobbed, clearly terrified.

"Okay, don't try any funny business and I'll get Max out of the way."

"Yes, you've done your job, now chill out in back." She got him out the back door, though he was still very anxious about the stranger.

She went back into the living room, where the little stranger was still hiding.

"You okay back there?"

Up until that moment, she figured he was just some kid in a costume, maybe a really good costume. She liked all kinds of sci-fi and action movies, so was keen on special effects and costumes. But when he rose, he was maybe four foot; she realized that it was not a costume. Or at least nothing she'd ever seen before.

He had a doggy-wolfy like head, proportionally bigger ears though, and odd proportions to the body and limbs. He looked like he could as easily go on all fours as stand up right. That was not a human body as she understood such. He wore work overalls, though had bare feet, looking very doggish.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I am Tommy, Tommy Ballard. What are you?" The voice was thin and high and oddly cadenced, but intelligible.

"I'm a human. Ya know, from Earth." Maybe he's an alien?

"Don't know 'human'," He garbled the apparently unfamiliar word, "But I am of 'Earth' as well."

Dale looked around; of course they didn't have a globe. Or an atlas, but they did have the Internet. "Wait right there."

She got her laptop and opened it up then pulled up a world map and held the unit out to him. He seemed to understand the device, but in looking at the map, shook his head. "Not my Earth."

Dale puzzled. Maybe she could get a better idea as to what he was, and did a search for canids. There came up a screen full of thumbnail images of various things, mostly wolves and dogs. She showed him the display and demonstrated the open image function. Clearly he was familiar with computers, needing only to have the particulars of the format pointed out.

He went though a few then pointed at a coyote. The same kind of ears and somewhat pointy face, compared to a wolf. But not just a coyote in a pair of overalls. He was a person, sort of. He had paws that functioned more like proper hands, his head, well, his skull, she guessed, was fuller and his eyes were closer and larger than the animal. His body was also more wide than deep, more like a human's rather than a canine's.

She suddenly thought of that movie, the one with the animals. Zootopia. She called it up, well not the movie, it wasn't available, but there were the trailers and some sample scenes. She showed them to him.

He was stunned. He could tell it was just computer graphic cartoons, but was speechless for some minutes as several clips and samples played.

"Triumph City" He breathed. "Not really, no different climates, but still, it is like Triumph city. Now can this be?"

"So, you came from some kind of animal world? A parallel universe of something?"

"I don't know about anything like that. And this movie has some differences, the range of sizes, not so big or small, not like those little things." He pointed at the tiny mouse characters, then rubbed his face. "But the idea of a city of all species."

"How did you get here?"

"I do not know."

"I wonder." She typed in a search for 'Triumph City'. With little surprise she found any number of references to motor cycles. After plowing through innumerable variations of that, she found a Zootopia fan fiction reference. She tried to open up that and got an empty document. Odd. And there were some additional Triumph City references and links that also ended up being empty documents. Clearly there was some kind of something going on, but nothing she could get to.

"Shoot. Not luck there." She looked at Tommy again. "So. Where and what were you doing? Then pop?"

"Yeah. I'm a carpenter, house framing mostly. I was on a rooftop. New development out of New Maple. I was getting ready to nail down a sheet of ply. Kneeling down, and then I was on the floor here."

He glanced to the sound of Max still fussing in the back yard. "Then that thing tried to attack me." He shuddered at the memory, his face and ears back in a very doggy expression.

"Oh. Max would be a wild cousin of you here like you saw."

"Yes. Of course. But what are you? I am like your world's coyote, but there is nothing like you in our world."

"Good question." And Dale again went to her laptop to pull up images of apes and monkeys. "We are sort of evolved along with the branch of animals that also make of these."

Tommy puzzled over the images and scrolled through more. "No. We have nothing like this. Oh, wait." And he pointed out a ring-tailed lemur. "We do have these folks, or at least folks who look similar."

After poking around the Internet fro a little while, Dale regarded Tommy. "Say, how old are you?"

He shrugged. "Forty two." He cocked his head in a very canine fashion as he considered Dale in return. "And you?"

"Just sixteen."

Tommy was shocked, or certainly that was her interpretation. "You've been a mother already?"

"What? No." She was shocked and confused.

"Oh?" And he pointed at the girl's breasts.

"What do you mean by that?" Dale was somewhat proud of her perky 'B' cup shape.

The Coyote coked his head again, clearly trying to figure things out. "But you don't smell like you've been a mother? And you are not expressing?"

Dale puzzled over that for a moment longer, then the light dawned. "You mean my breasts? We all have them all the time, though they can get bigger when we're nursing."

"Oh." And he then shrugged. "And your hair? Just on your head?"

"Pretty much." She wasn't going to mention pubes and pits. And then referred back to her computer. "Here are some of the types and styles that people come in." And she pulled up images of people from around the world and handed the unit off to Tommy again for him to browse.

"All those sizes and colors. And those are males?" He pointed at some beefcake.

"Yeah." And she blushed just a bit. Tommy was polite enough not to react to that and other things he noticed. He'd been young once as well.

"How big, how tall can you get?"

"I'm about as tall as I'm going to get." Dale sighed. She was five-three, and as her mother was only four-eleven, she didn't have much hope of a late grown spurt. "I'm about short average, but some people are commonly this tall." And she reached as high as she could over her head. Then pointing at the upper doorsill to the next room, "There is the occasional giant who is that high."

"And you are all the one specie? And no other?"

"The only intelligent, well, only species that does the civilization thing. There are various animals who have some level of intelligence and emotion as we understand it, but, no we're the only ones like you or me."

Tommy sat back to consider all that, as did Dale in her own way. Parallel universes were now a common theme in various sci-fi movies and TV, but that she'd be facing the refugee from a quasi-Zootopia world was a bit much.

"Do you want to chance something to eat or drink?"

Tommy had to think a moment. "Water would be safe for now, and thank you."

She ushered him to the kitchen, where he looked in awe at the features.

"Other than details and some scale, it's very much like home."

She showed him the contents of the pantry and refrigerator. He was amused by all the similarities in packaging. The text was unfamiliar, but only just. Then he saw the package of bacon and recoiled from it.

"Is that Meat?"

Dale could guess his discomfort. "Yes. We eat some animals, unintelligent animals." She reluctantly admitted.

He rushed out of the room with a whine. She followed him back to the living room.

"Tommy? Are you okay?"

"Eaters. You're eaters." He sadly whined, hugging himself.

"There are those who don't eat meat and say we all shouldn't, but, it still a thing." Dale had not really thought too much about vegetarianism. She knew a few, and though she sympathized with the concept, they tended to be self-righteous snobs, not the sort of thing she wanted to be a part of. Besides she still liked her burgers and bacon.

She stood off to the side while the poor sad coyote paced the floor in agitation.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Stay right there!" Dale warned. Any word of this getting out would likely go media crazy. And more ominously, alien autopsy like outcome for the poor Coyote. She warily peeked out a window and recoiled at what she saw. Honest to goodness MIBs.

"Ohmygod! Tommy! I don't know how, but it looks like some kind of government men are here! They gotta be looking for you!"

Tommy gave her a puzzled look. "Government? Shouldn't I submit?" He gestured at himself. "I don't belong here. Don't have anywhere I can go." He sighed. "Perhaps they can even help?"

Dale chewed her lip in conflict. She'd seen some old 'X-File' episodes and any number of alien visitors to Earth gone bad movies and couldn't help fear for him. But?

"I'll get the door."

And there they were. Two tall rather bland looking men, in charcoal grey rather than black suits standing just off from the door. And two more on the sidewalk by the driveway. And two more on the end of the block.

"Can I help you?" Dale peeked from behind the only half opened door.

"Hello, Ma'am. We were wondering if you happened to have an unusual visitor here with you today?" One spoke.

"I guess you already know that. And yes." But Dale made no move to open the door further. "You're not going to alien autopsy him or anything are you?"

Both of the MIBs grimaced just a bit at that. "Would you believe us if we said no?"

Dale cringed a bit, then opened the door with a hint of a sob.

"Thank you Ma'am. And you are?"

"Dale Tackleford."

"Thank you."

As they entered the house they caught sight of Tommy and without missing a beat. "Hello, sir. We are here to assist you in your time here."

Tommy cocked his head. "There have been others?"

The two MIBs shrugged. Then one asked. "Where did you first appear?"

Tommy and Dale exchanged looks. These agents sounded like they'd done this before. Tommy pointed to the middle of the living room.

One of the agents pulls out his smart 'phone takes a series of snaps of the room.

"Have you mentioned him to anyone?"

"No."

"Good. It's better if you don't."

"But if he isn't the first, then why are you keeping him secret?"

The two agents glanced at each other. Then one turned to her. "Did you ever see the movie "Men in Black'? Seeing her nod, "Do you remember the speech Agent K said about the public finding out? That everyone would freak out? Same kind of thing, but instead of aliens, it's a leaky parallel universe. That's why it's so similar. Don't know how long individuals have been crossing, but ideas, the collective minds on both sides seem to be picking up on each other for the longest time."

The other agent continued. "So, for now, we're keeping things quiet. And hope you realize the importance of all this?"

Dale shrugged, still not sure how to react.

"We'll be monitoring you to make sure." There was something in the agent's tone, less of menace than sympathy for her circumstance.

Tommy piped up. "Can you get me home?"

The two agents exchanged shrugs. "We're just here to collect. Don't really know what's next."

Dale suspected that they knew more than they were saying, but she was still too surprised and intimidated to pursue anything.

Then it was time for Tommy to go.

"Hope you can get home." Then Dale glanced at the agents. "Or at least they take good care of you."

The poor little Coyote could only shrug, sadly resigned to his unknown fate.

And then they were gone.

Dale plopped down on the living room couch, her mind reeling over all that had just happened. As much as she wanted, perhaps even needed to tell someone, the whole MIB experience left her fearful. Then as she settled a bit, the notion of a whole parallel universe, a Zootopia-esque world of animals became her focus.

Then she remembered Max and let him back in the house. After a quick romp around to sniff the hints of all the scary strangers, he nuzzled his girl for mutual reassurance.

"Yeah, goofy Dog. Too weird." As she hugged the big fuzzy. "How'd you want to go to animal world?"

Max gave her a sloppy lick.