Disclaimer: Zootopia and all related characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks, and copyrights, belong to their respective owners.

…..

"Of course, good afternoon, ma'am."

Hanging up the phone, Mayor Karen Ackerbunn let out a sigh of relief. Drumming her claw tips on the desktop, she started to build a mental list of what she needed to do next.

A knock on her office door made her look up in time to see her assistant Ken poke his head in. "Hey Karen, how did it go with Chief Bogo?"

Waving Ken in and pointing at a chair, she replied, "I think it went okay, kind of hard to tell with him. He brings new meaning to the phrase 'A mammal of few words.' Fortunately, one of those words was 'yes.'"

The porcupine popped back up and leaned forward with his paw up, "Sweet, high four?"

Karen just looked at the quill covered paw and grimaced, "How about a raincheck."

Letting his paw drop, he smirked, "Yeah, I get that a lot."

Sitting back in his chair, Ken rubbed his paws together, "I love it when a plan comes together!"

Karen smiled, "Well, it's not together yet. Now comes the hardest part." Sliding a mug back and forth between her paws on the desktop, she thought for a few moments before adding, "I'm not sure I trust Hopps. If he backs out or worse has something up his sleeve that blows up, then we're the ones that are going to have to pick up the pieces."

"I don't know, maybe he's loosened up a little and changed his attitude."

Karen and Ken stoically looked each other in the eye. Neither moved or even twitched for almost five seconds until Ken finally broke first and started to laugh. "Okay, fine, I'm not buying it either, we'll just have to keep an eye on him."

Karen nodded, "Yeah, still, it was almost surreal seeing him…."

…..

Two days earlier….

"Morning Daisy, how's our favorite Mayor doing this morning?" Ken Quillbert smiled at the elderly rabbit doe sitting at the receptionist's desk.

Daisy Moses, the Mayor's Executive Admin, swiveled her ears toward the set of wooden double doors behind her and was about to reply when a loud crashing noise caused her to jump in her seat.

"Never mind, I'm guessing she got my email."

Daisy pulled a box out of her desk drawer and gave it to Ken, "You'll need these, I think she's out."

Ken smiled at Daisy, knocked twice on the Mayor's door and then let himself into her office before being invited.

"I thought you said we'd have more time before the social media sites would start hammering us."

Glancing over at the broken ceramic pieces in the corner of the room, Ken sat down next to the Mayor's desk and sighed. "We should've had more time and I can't figure out why we didn't get it. The metrics don't make any sense. Some articles seemed to go viral and then suddenly die while other content is following a more normal lifecycle. I don't know."

Karen shook her head. "It doesn't matter why it happened, it did and if we don't think of something fast, we're going to be playing host to a bunch of protests and sit-ins."

Ken sighed, they'd tried yesterday to think of a solution, but nothing seemed workable, so they'd decided to think about it overnight and try again this morning. Unfortunately, the internet never sleeps and their time had run out. If they didn't come up with something to present to the Co-op board, right now, they were going to be neck-deep in trouble.

"We could try submitting your predator equal rights bill to the city council again, maybe they'll approve it this time."

Karen shrugged. "If I knew I could get it passed, I'd resubmit it in a heartbeat, but I'm worried it would get voted down again, and if it did, we'd be proving that reporter right and end up encouraging even more protests."

Ken reached down and pulled a mug out of the box Daisy had given him and set it on the desk for his boss. "Sorry, other than that, I've got nothing."

Karen raised an eyebrow at Ken's motion and then shook her head, "Yeah, me neither."

The intercom on Karen's desk buzzed. "Madam Mayor, there's a Mr. Finnberry from the Pred-Prey Equal Rights Alliance on the phone asking to speak with you."

Karen looked at Ken, who shrugged his shoulders, "Never heard of them."

"Daisy, please put him through."

…..

Rapping her knuckles on the table, Mayor Ackerbunn quieted the eight rabbits in the conference room. "Thank you all for attending this meeting on such short notice.

"As you are aware, an article was published a couple of days ago, highlighting some of the discriminatory policies and practices here in Bunnyburrow. This article has garnered a significant amount of interest online, and we expect that other media outlets in the city and eventually in the Commonwealth will pick it up soon."

"Who cares about what people wasting their time reading crap on the internet think." Retorted an old brown and mottled black buck.

"Mr. Hayes, we need to care about what those mammals are reading about us online. For many mammals, online is their only source of news and information." Looking over the group, Karen added, "Unfortunately for us, everything in that article is the truth. Predators are treated as second class citizens in this community. They are shunned, taken advantage of and mistreated. We were fortunate that more of our anti-predator 'policies' were not mentioned in the article."

"I still don't care."

Ken stood up and replied, "Sir, the future of Bunnyburrow depends on us caring. Over the last six months, we have applied for almost ten million dollars' worth of Commonwealth grants. We absolutely need those grants to improve our school programs, improve the Burrow communications network, and upgrade our utility infrastructure."

Ken looked at the group of rabbits around the table and could see they still didn't care, "How many of your kits are planning on moving out of Bunnyburrow when they're old enough? What are we doing to help interest them in staying? We need to diversify the Burrow job base and embrace the online economy, it's the only way to encourage your kits to stay in town and to do that we need the infrastructure and educational system to support it."

Ken grimaced at the lack of response from the Board, "If the Commonwealth thinks we're a bunch of speciest hicks that hate predators, they'll trash our grant applications and give the money to Podunk or Farflung or worst case, one of the other Tri-Burrows communities."

Karen scanned the group of rabbits and could see that Ken's arguments hadn't made an impact. Yes, it was critical that they calm the internet, and yes, the town desperately needed those grants, but she and Ken were really here after something bigger, something they'd both wanted since college, and this crisis, along with the solution they'd come up with, created the perfect opportunity to try and make it happen. She had to find a way to get enough support from the Board to move forward with her plan.

Motioning for Ken to step aside, Karen took over the meeting and pulled out the big guns, "There's another bigger, more immediate set of problems we're going to have to deal with if we don't do something right away."

That got Stu Hopps' attention, "What are you talking about?"

"Protests, sit-ins, boycotts of our produce and shaming of any retailer or grocery store that carries Bunnyburrow goods. We've already seen mammals on social media sites calling for action against us because of our treatment of predators. If we don't nip this in the bud, we could suffer devastating losses. Your harvests could end up rotting in the fields, your reserves wiped out, and we all know a couple of farms in Bunnyburrow that are on edge financially, this could be enough to force them into bankruptcy."

Stu took a deep breath and asked, "Fine, what do you propose we do?"

Here goes, "I'm glad you asked. I have been in contact with an organization that promotes improving pred-prey relations and they have offered us an honorarium to fund an outreach program. I've spent most of the last few hours working on a plan which I believe will keep the internet trolls at bay and more importantly, actually help the community understand predators better."

Looking at Stu again, "With your support, I would like to have one of the ZPD's predator officers work for a couple of months as a deputy for Sheriff Hoofson."

Blank stares.

"I've spoken with Zootopia's mayor, Mayor Osborn, and requested that the ZPD's first fox Officer, Nick Wilde, be transferred here. The honorarium I mentioned will easily cover his pay and room and board and leave plenty left over to fund the outreach events we have planned." Karen forced a smile and waited for a response.

"Oh, hell no!"

"Over my dead body."

"You can't be serious, having a predator as a deputy is bad enough, but a fox? He'll eat our kits."

"Yeah, foxes are shifty, untrustworthy animals, he'll steal the town blind."

Karen's smile fell, this wasn't going at all like she had hoped. "Mr. Hopps, help me out here."

Stu had been listening to all the objections and was about to voice his own when the Mayor interrupted his thoughts.

"What?" was all Stu got out.

"Mr. Hopps, Nick Wilde has been your daughter Judy's partner at the ZPD for six months. I had hoped that their successful working relationship would be an example that we could use in Bunnyburrow to show that predators and prey can live and work together in harmony."

Stu was stunned and just stared at the Mayor. 'Nick Wilde, Nick Wilde, okay, yeah, Judy talked a couple of times about her partner Nick. That doesn't mean it's the same Nick. Aren't all ZPD officers named Nick? It can't be, she would have said something. This can't be happening. Oh rotten, moldy pumpkins, Judy's partner is…'

"A FOX?!"

Everyone around the table stopped talking at Stu's outburst. Karen shook her head and said, "Yes, Mr. Hopps, Officer Wilde is a fox."

Hayes smacked the top of the table, "Where's he going to stay? Because it sure as hell ain't going to be the motel. No way my family is going to allow some criminal to have a room there. We'll never be able to rent a room again."

Ken broke in, "Mr. Hayes, the costs for his room and board will be covered by the honorarium, please, he needs to be able to stay somewhere."

"No, I don't care about the money, let the filthy flea-bag sleep in the street for all I care!"

Other bucks started tossing out ideas. "How about letting him stay with that baker, he's a fox."

Karen showing more frustration than she meant to, replied, "He can't, the zoning rules prohibit unrelated predators from living together unless they work on a farm."

"Let him sleep in the jail. The cells have beds, a bucket in case he has to take a piss, and we can lock the door to make sure he doesn't get out at night. Or just leave him there for the whole two months."

"We are not going to lock up one of our own deputies."

"How about we muzzle him and…"

"I'll do it."

"…then with some shackles, we chain him to—"

Stu pounded the table to get everyone's attention. "I said, I'll do it. He can stay at my warren while he's working for the sheriff."

Karen and Ken looked at each other, neither had expected Stu Hopps to volunteer to host Officer Wilde, the most they had been hoping for was for him to not actively oppose the plan.

"Thank you for your support, Mr. Hopps, and hosting Officer Wilde is very generous of you." Addressing the rest of the group, "In a couple of days, Mayor Osborn and I will speak with ZPD Chief Bogo and get his approval for Officer Wilde's transfer. Once that's done, I will let you know when Officer Wilde is expected to arrive."

Mayor Ackerbunn and Ken walked out of the conference room after adjourning the meeting. Stu sat at the table as the rest of the Co-op council exited the room.

As Hayes made his way to the exit, he stopped next to Stu and looked at him like he was an idiot, "Stu, you're a damn fool for letting a fox stay in your warren, you best count your kits every morning to see which ones he eats."

Stu nodded in reply. Hayes was right, letting a fox near his family was probably the stupidest thing he'd ever agreed to. Unfortunately, he didn't have a choice. Judy was upset with him, and Bonnie was about to make him start sleeping on the couch, and even after thinking about it all night, he still had no idea on how to fix things with Judy. His only chance was to try and wheedle some information out of Judy's fox partner and hope it was something that he could use.

Stu stood up and made his way out of the room. 'A fox, why did it have to be a fox?' Foxes are sly and deceitful and take advantage of every mammal they meet. He was going to have to be careful, if this Nick person found out that he needed his help to make things right with Judy, no telling what the fox would demand in return for his aid. Money, land, or god forbid, meat.

Now, how to tell the family what he'd agreed to? Well, Ackerbunn had said it's not a done deal yet. As he left the building, he decided he would hold off on telling anyone about their possible visitor, no reason to upset them unnecessarily. In the meantime, a quick trip to the general store for a new fox taser and a couple canisters of Fox Away spray would probably be a good idea.

…..

Ackerbunn's office, Present

Ken got up to leave, "You know, if we somehow pull this off, it'd make a sweet story. Town on the ropes, impending riots, Mayor throws a Hail Mary, gets equal rights for predators passed, secures millions in funding, and then gets reelected over and over until she dies and they put a statue of her in the town square."

Karen snorted, "I think you'd better leave the storytelling to the pros. All I need to be a happy bun is to survive the day."

"You sure? What if the statue has you dressed in a toga holding a sword in one paw and the head of a dragon in the other?"

"Don't make me throw this mug at you, because I will. Now get out of my office and go tell the sheriff that his new officer will be here tomorrow."