A Zootopia to Remember

Author Notes and Summaries:

Sorry for those curious, this will not be a chapter, but a quick explanation of story elements and general direction this story will plan to go without giving away the plot.

While Zootopia, at this moment, has made a fairly hard line on not including simian, sapiens, and what is considered as domesticated animals to those forms, I will take a slightly different take on this.

My story momentum and idea may depress some, anger others, or outright put off those who are puritans on what is believed to be a 'Zootopia Ideal'.

Well, I won't apologize for my decision. My story.

However, before you get too ruffled, this is my belief in the world of Zootopia.

At the start of the world, there was pathogens or other genetic modifying viruses that were spawned and propagated on the world before the rise of what we would normally consider life.

These viruses is what killed off the early constructs of what would have become the branches of sapiens and simian life forms.

So yes, neither simian (ape, chimps, etc) nor sapiens (human, neanderthal, gray aliens, or other humanistic bipeds) will be in this story.

However, this throws an interesting curve. No humanity, no domestication.

But a lot of the domesticated species came about by intentional breeding and genetic alteration.

Yup, got that covered. The afore-mentioned genetic virus.

And before you get twitching, this is required for the story to progress.

This means that archaeology digs will detect bones of simian and sapien species, eventually. Maybe not in Zootopia proper, but it's a huge world with far more on it than a megalopolis of Zootopia on a single continent. This will be brought up in further chapters as a driving point for some of the plot devices. I won't go into more.

The virus as well will also bring up some key points in the future plot devices and why things happened that happened, and why the future Zootopia that Nick and Judy are trying to stop happening destroyed itself, in a gleeful way. It's going to be a fun ride. Trust me :)

The genetic mutating virus is required if for no other reason then to alter the species of Zootopia and the planet itself so that inter-breeding can happen.

Without this, the possibilities of children between species would be impossible. Full stop. While this doesn't dictate love, I think it limits the possibilities of the future. It limits what we view as potential ideas of entirely new species and sub-species for the future.

It opens up amazing doors for me, as a writer, of where I can take future stories of this. While the thousands of standard species allows some amazing writing, sooner or later we would write ourselves in a corner. By having pre-determined limitations, you limit your potential. You limit your future.

When has Nick and Judy ever stopped and said 'yup, I'm a Fox and a Bunny, gotta stick to what we are'. Yea, good luck telling them that!

As for the existence of the Mastiff. With genetic mutation, this is entirely possible to happen. Because we do not see what is considered 'domesticated' dogs or cats in Zootopia, does not mean they do not exist in the world at large, on other contentents, in other areas.

Even if you argue domesticated cats, we have cats even in our own world that while domesticated is considered entirely feral on their own. Norwegian Forest Cats are considerably wild and if you ever owned one you can confirm they do not behave like domesticated cats. The Savannah also fit in this category. Just because a species we see today are domesticated, it means absolutely nothing in a completely different world, a completely different society, and a completely different universe and reality.

Assume they're just a genetic offshoot from inter-breeding, love, and generations of alterations from the genetic virus.

Kinda like how Mastiff's occurred today, just in Zootopia it'll be through nature instead of our world where it's through intention.

As for Judy and the gag reflex. It may surprise you, but yes, I did indeed know about rabbits and their lack of a gag reflex. I did a fair amount of research before going down my journey of a Zootopia fan-fiction.

Judy's gag reflex was well thought out and intentional.

First, a rabbit by default based on the design of their esophagus and stomach muscles, do not have a gag reflex and their stomach muscles are far far too weak to be able to trigger a regurgitation response.

This is known biology… in our world.

Have you seen Judy on Zootopia? In her form fitting outfit with her primed and muscular 6-pack?

That is not a weak stomach.

So yes, this means that Judy, as well as most rabbits will have a gag reflex, and some even be able to vomit. They still will have the genetic diversity to be able to breathe and swallow at the same time, but becoming upright and getting genetically diversified to handle the much longer transport of food to and from the mouth to the stomach?

Welcome to the world of belching, Judy!

Also, being genetically altered to stand erect means the esophagus has to be expanded, as well as the musculature has to be increased to handle food going in a vertical pattern instead of horizontal.

There will be genetic diversity to the Zootopians to what we consider the mammals of what we see today. There just has to be because of their bearing, presentation, and how they act and behave alone, let alone their visual differences. Likely if you put the mammals of Zootopia under a genetic marker and compared to what we see as mammals, they would likely be considered completely different species or at the very least a super-genus to what is seen today. It's impossible not to be.

The fact is, what we consider pure carnivores, like cats, will likely have gotten to be able to be omnivores in Zootopia. While they would prefer and be able to digest meat far more than vegetables, the could survive on vegetables.

The reverse would also be true. Pure vegetarian or vegan species like rabbits would they, themselves, become omnivores through diversity. Meaning that our beloved little bunny may be found in future chapters chowing down on shrimp, fish patties, or the occasional honey baked cricket chip. To the teasing of Nick, of course.

There is specism and peer pressure in all the various species.

Predators mock other predators for eating vegetables and grains.

Prey mock other prey for eating meat and meat proteins.

Both species mock each other for both of the above.

You know, it'll be a lot like our own society of hate, intolerance, and open ended disgust.

Hurrah.

So in closing, Zootopia will still be Zootopia. The viewing of what we know as domesticated cats and dogs will not be seen in Zootopia proper. They are however part of the world of Zootopia. Mostly in other countries who want what Zootopia has.

Fertile ground, excellent lines to shipping and distribution.

Zootopia is a gold mine and rich assholes want it.

That's a plot point of this story.

So, keep hold of your hat, and I hope you'll stick around to see where the story goes.

For those who want to keep a pure ideal of what Zootopia is in their mind, I applaud you to keeping to your ideals. If this means you no longer can read this story, I'll be sad to see you go. Feel free to take some beers and suveniers on the way out and I hope you find a story to your liking.

For those who wish to see where it goes, the 3D glasses are in the bin, take a seat, ignore the shaking around you and prepare for a Wilde ride.

- The Author (At the behest of Judy and Nick)

… Judy, those are my bags of fried crickets, get your own.