FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Welcome to Paradise Bay. This city makes its home along the iconic beaches and sparkling oceans of Fox Star County. Located to the east of the city is the Trans-Continental Highway that separates Paradise Bay from its sister city, Victoria Coast. Paradise itself is a very beautiful picturesque city with its gently rising hills and parks located among the artificial structures of glass and steel. Despite being a very large city, the people of Paradise have a strong sense of community and take pride in living in such a clean and safe city. In their free time, many of the city's inhabitants can be found enjoying the sights and sounds of the local scenery, jogging along the tree-lined sidewalks and splashing in the beautiful, clear water of the sea. Without a doubt, Paradise Bay certain lives up to its name...

I lifted my pencil from the blue lined notebook page and silently read to myself the paragraph I just finished writing. I was currently sitting in my bed with my back against the headboard and my blanket covering the bottom half of my body. My long fluffy tail was curled up beside me.

"My God," I muttered about half way through, "this sounds like one of those cheesy brochures from the Visitor's Center."

Once I was finished, I closed my notebook with a snap and set it down on the nightstand nearby.

"But what they don't tell you is how boring this damn place is," I said to myself.

Suddenly, a loud, hair-rising shriek raced into my room and penetrated into my sensitive eardrums. I let out a yelp of surprise and covered my ears.

It was my mother.

"BEN? ARE YOU AWAKE YET?"

If I wasn't awake before, I sure was now.

How exactly she made her voice carry so well and be so loud that even the neighbors could hear her supersonic screams, was a complete mystery.

I sat up from my bed and carefully made my way across the piles of dirty clothing, paper, trash and other things that my bedroom look like the city junkyard, be careful not to step on anything. For only God knew what could be hiding under the next pile of soil blue jeans. Once I safely got the other side without stepping on anything, I opened the door and bellowed as loud as I could down the stairs.

"YES MOTHER!"

"Well good, get down here breakfast is almost ready."

"OK!"

I went back inside my room and closed my door behind me like always. I took a moment to glance around the various things I had on the walls. A poster of a tiger in football gear made its home on the back of the door and another poster near my desk was of wolf wearing a graduation cap and gown. He stared at me with a big cheesy grin.

"I earned my degree from Chapman, so can you!" the poster read.

Mother had given this one to me and not a day goes by does she ask me whether or not I've decided on what university I'm going to once I graduate from high school. My honest excuse was that I never really gave it a lot of thought and wasn't really all that concerned. There were other things on the walls of various bands and video game characters but none of the caught my interest at the moment.

I took another daring trek across my room to the dresser and just like the floor, the surface was littered with paper, junk food wrappers, and simple trinkets such as figurines from a TV show I always liked since I was kid.

A large mirror was hanging above my dresser and a curious looking furry was staring at me. Its long, ears were facing forward and sat at a slight angle on the animal's head. His rusty red-orange hair and fur that covered his body was an absolute mess and almost looked like he got in a fight with a wild bear. His soft auburn eyes caught the sunlight come in from the room and shined like opals.

I smiled and watched as my reflection copied that unique smile that everyone said I had.

"Wow, I really need a haircut," I said out loud.

I throw open the dresser and changed into a clean t-shirt and a pair of jeans and through my dirty pajamas across the room toward the laundry hamper. But I missed.

"Eh, whatever, I'll take care of that later," I muttered as I slipped out through the door and into the second floor hallway.

There were three rooms on this floor and a small bathroom. My bedroom faced west so I always got the most sunlight every morning. There was a smaller room across the hall that mirrored mine and then an even smaller room that faced north and for some reason there was no bathroom at all upstairs.

The upstairs hallway was really more of just a storage unit. Old, broken, or outdated furniture and appliances made their home up here along with books and old photo albums. I turned a corner and was about to head down the stairs when I noticed one of the albums was lying open on the floor.

"Huh?"

I walked over and picked it up.

It was open to a picture of my family. The first fur I recognized was my dad. His hair was neatly combed over and his black framed glasses sat at a prefect angle on his muzzle. He was wearing a neat, grey-striped button-up shirt tucked into a pair of black slacks. Even in this picture, I could still see the silver and white hairs that speckled his fur, symbolizing that he was only part red fox.

Standing next to him was my mother, with her typical little colored hair that was fashioned in a style that looked like she stepped out of a time machine from the 1950's. A long white, cherry-print dress covered her and her imagine of "the perfect housewife" was complete with the large pearl necklace hanging around her neck. Standing below my mother in an identical dress was a younger version of my older sister Savanna.

But there was someone standing under my dad that I almost didn't recognize. It was a male fox with a cocky grin on his face and a spark of trickery in his eyes.

"Jack!"

I couldn't believe it. It was a picture of my family before I was born. But what made this picture was the fact that Jack was in it. It had been so long since I last saw him; I almost forgot what he even looked like.

"BEN, ARE YOU COMING?" Mother shrieked.

"Yes Mother, just give me a minute!" I yelled back.

I closed the photo album and put it back with the others. I took a right turn and then head down the stairs. My paw held the railing as I went down. I took another right and travel straight from to the kitchen from the living room, passing the fire place that would not be lit for almost another 5 months.

As soon as I entered the kitchen, I let a loud "gah!" of disgust. Mother was standing there, her paws on her hips and wearing a dress that was the most putrid shade of green that reminded me of fermenting pea soup.

"See? Even Ben thinks it disgusting!" said my older sister Savanna, who went by Savy, was sitting at the dining table across the kitchen.

Mother glared at her.

"At least I'm not wear a shirt that showing so much cleavage that it would make no difference if I wasn't wear it at all!" she snapped back

Ouch, that was harsh but completely true. Savy's neckline was so low it looked like a canyon had formed between her breasts among her white chests fur. Mother turned around to stir a pot of something on the stove.

Savy's grumbled something that almost sounded liked a type of tree under her breath.

"I think you're just jealous, Mom, because I'm a D and you're a what, size B?"

Mother stopped and slammed the spoon down on the counter.

This is your captain, brace for impact! I thought

"How DARE you say something like to me, Savanna Vulpine!" Mother shouted, putting so much volume and power behind "dare", it made the pans hanging above the stove swing around, "I am your Mother! Not your Mom! You will never call me something that disrespectful again. Now, get in your room and change, young lady!"

Savy made a loud, annoyed sigh and stormed out of the kitchen.

"Why do you hate me?" she whined as she passed by Mother.

"I don't hate you Savy, I just want what's best for everyone in our family," Mother replied, her eyes followed her as she left until the fell on me.

"Oh, there you are Ben," she said but then paused as she looked at my messy hair, "you really need a haircut."

"I know," I replied, "so what's for breakfast?"

"Oh the usual," Mother said as he stood up on her tippy toes to open a cupboard and took four plates out of it, "can you get your father please? He's in the garage working on that confounded car of his."

"Again? I thought we told him that piece of junk wasn't worth it," I commented as I watch Mother move into the dining room and put the plates on the table.

"I know but according to him, 'It just needs some TLC'"

"As in 'Tender Loving Care' or 'Totally Lost Cause?'"

Mother sighed and simply shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, but you know how he is, he's not going to give up on a challenge. Why do you think he's so good at his job?"

"Oh yeah..." I muttered to myself.

Dad was a personal injury and family case lawyer who worked for the local law firm. He was so good, that he almost had the chance to become the assistant district attorney for Paradise Bay. But he turned the job down because he felt that we had moved around too much already. Savy had just finished high school and I would be going into my final year once school started again in September.

"Alright, I'll be back," I said and made my way down the hall, passing the door to Dad's office, the door to the only bathroom and past my parents' room. I approached the last door at the end of the hallway and went through it to the garage.

But as soon as I did, a brick wall of heat slammed into my face and I could feel sweat already forming in my fur. The heat was so bad, I could barely think straight. I used my paw to soot along the wall till I found the garage door opener. I slammed down on the large plastic button and as the door opened, cool, crisp, sea air flooded inside.

Whew! How can Dad work in this? I thought.

There was a large black car sitting in the center of the cement floor and the sound of a cranking socket wrench was coming from underneath it.

"Hey Dad, is that you?" I asked, peeking under the car a little.

There was no reply. Instead, a lone, black furred paw appeared from around the broken machine and pawed around at the floor till it fell upon an open red tool box. However, it was just out of its reach and paw was desperately trying to grab at it until one of the paw's claws got hooked on the lip of the box.

The paw seemed satiated but when it tried to move the tool box closer, the box instead flipped over and slammed down unto the paw, spilling all of it condense on it as well.

A large grunt escaped from under the car and I watch my father crawl out.

My dad was just a few inches taller than me, and the light from outside made the silver and white hairs among his fur glow. He was wearing a heavily stained t-shirt and the smell of car oils was strong around him. My dad was shaking his battered paw when he looked at my in surprise and with his free paw he yanked his ear buds out of his ear.

"Oh hi Ben didn't see you there," Dad said.

I shrugged, "It's ok, Dad. Is your paw alright?"

"Yeah I'll be fine," he replied.

He picked up a rag from off the roof of the car, wiped his paws on it, and then threw it somewhere.

"So, what do you need son?" Dad asked.

"Well, Mother wanted me to tell that breakfast is ready," I replied.

"Ah, ok. Can I get your help with something before we go?"

"Sure, what is it?"

Dad moved over to the front of the car.

"As you know, I've been working on this stupid thing for well over 3 months now and I think I've finally got it," Dad said, "so, what I need you to do, is pop open the engine hood so I can make some final adjustments and when say, go, start it up, ok?"

I nodded, "Ok, doesn't sound too bad."

"Great," Dad replied, as he fluffed up my hair, "You need a haircut."

"I know. Where are the keys?"

"They are in the ignition, son."

I hoped into the front of the black car and watched as Dad opened the engine hood. The driver's seat window was open and sense I knew very little about cars, I was curious to know what he was going to do as he picked up the tools that had fallen on the floor and brought them to the front of the car.

Some of the tools he was using made sense such as a screwdriver and a wrench. But then my eyes went wide in shock as I watched my father take out a hammer!

"Um, Dad? Do you know what you're doing?!"

He peeked over at me with a big grin that reminded me of the wolf on the poster in my room.

'Of course I do! Why do you think God made broken cars? To be fixed by dads like me!"

And then in a few moments, I heard loud banging come from inside of the car.

"Ok, let 'er rip!"

I jerked the key forwarded and much to my astonishment, the car roared to life. But among the loud rumbles came a yelping cry of pain and the smell of burnt fur.

"FUCK!"

I turned the car off and jumped out of it.

"Dad! Are you alright?"

He just stood there whimpering as he held his right paw that was smoking like a burnt cigarette. I shook my head as I helped him back into the house to dress his wound. Once we were in bathroom, he sat down on the toilet and let out a heavy sigh. Dad's ears were folding back and a look of disappointment was in his brown eyes.

"Can I say something?" I asked as I bent down to get the medical tape from under the sink.

"Go ahead son," Dad replied.

"I guess this also way God made mechanics too."

We both burst out in laughter as we left the bathroom and went into the kitchen.