FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hello, or whatever people say here,

My mom got me this journal thinking it would be a good idea to express my "feelings" or whatever.

Anyways, my name is Jo Stratfield. I'm this close to turning 11 but until then, I'm stuck in a 10-year-old body for now. I assume that most of you know what I look like since you've met me. In case you don't get it, I'm a wolf or whatever they call a young wolf, my fur is grey (or gray, however it's spelled), I sometimes wear a pink ribbon in my hair. I don't know why I do that.

You'll mostly find me hanging out with my best friend: Riley McCarthy-Tripp. We've been best buds for years; ever since he suddenly skipped to the first grade in the middle of the year. The guy's like a mini genius or something.

Anyways, I'll just spare you the details and skip to the part of Riley's parents' anniversary. So I'm sitting there, beating the high score (again) and Mike's cuddling up to Riley. Then I hear his parents call us downstairs. So Riley carries Mike downstairs and into the kitchen where these two furs sit at the table. I know it was his cousins Angie and Bruno. I think they're married too.

Anyways, we sat at the table (Mike wanted to sit on Riley's lap but he said no) and we start chatting it up.

"Nice to see ya again, Jo." Angie said. Or something along the lines if that.

"S'up?" I remember saying.

"Nothing." I recalled Wendell saying something about others coming as well. So I figured soon enough, the place was gonna get crowded.

About 10 or 20 minutes of talking, the doorbell rang and Todd answered it. I turned around in my seat and saw a tiger and an arctic fox being carried by said tiger. "Dexter! Tom!" Todd said and he hugged them both.

"It's good to see you again." The tiger said. He had a very thick southern accent. I like it.

"How've you been Dex?" My guess was the tiger was Dexter and the fox was Tom. I never really met them before. I think I've heard their names together before, but not sure if I ever met them.

"Tom! Dex!" Riley got up, ran over to them and jumped into Tom's arms. Apparently they met before.

"Well if it isn't my identical twin." Tom said. There is no way they're twins because Riley is half of Tom's size. However, if you exclude Tom's highlights, they kinda look alike (if it weren't for the fact that Tom is twice the size of Riley). I looked over at Mike and could tell he was jealous that Tom was holding Riley.

I've always noticed that Mike had a crush on Riley. I think even he knows it too. After all, that skunk didn't want to let go of Riley while I was dominating his game. Every time Mike even gets a little bit cuddly, he just "has" to get all snuggly with Riley. As for me? I've always liked Riley. He's my buddy. We've been best buds for a long time. I know you're probably asking yourselves: Does Jo Stratfield have a crush on Riley Tripp? The answer: sort of.

He's always been a best friend; but only a best friend. I'm not sure if looking for love now is a good idea because at my age, you probably haven't met your soulmate. Then again, Riley's parents met when they were only 9. I'm 10.

Another question that might be on your mind is what I think of Mike. Well, to be honest, I don't really connect with him as well as Riley. I don't hate Mike at all. I enjoy hanging out with him and I'm sure he does with me. But, I don't really have much in common with him. I'll try to strike up a conversation with him every now and then, but without Riley, all conversations with just me and Mike turn downhill and awkward.

"So, Mike, you getting jealous of that?" I asked him, pointing at Tom who was just setting Riley down. What? I never said I don't tease him around like I do with all of my friends.

"No. What makes you think that?" He asked. I caught him sneaking glances over at Riley most of the party.

"Mike, let's be honest, we all know you love Riley."

"Can you blame me? He's very cute, he's nice, smart. How can I not love him?" I rolled my eyes.

"But you're aware he's straight right?" I asked.

"Yes. I am. I just can't help it."

"We know." I said. Riley came back into the room and I swear the second he did, Mike got a smile on his face again. That skunk is so lovesick I can barely describe it.

"I want to go back upstairs." I said. "I'm already bored. Plus, I was so close to destroying Riley in that video game."

"You guys can head upstairs later." Wendell said. Guy's just mad I shot a balloon at his face. I drummed my fingers on the table and my eyes wondered around the room. Riley's house is big but not too big. I got out of my chair once Wendell and Todd went into the living room with that tiger and the fox along with Angie and Bruno. Me, Mike and Riley were left in the kitchen.

"Jo, what're you doing?" Riley asked.

"What does it look like?" I said. "I wondering around the kitchen."

"This can't be good." Riley got up out of his chair too.

"I don't need to be looked after." I said.

"Yes you do." They both said in unison. For two people who are way out of their league for each other, they sure act like they're dating.

Past Riley's kitchen is a not-even 8 foot hallway that loops back into the living room. In that small area is a door that leads into the basement. I've only been in Riley's basement once I my lifetime. It was like two years ago and I helped bring up Christmas decorations.

I quietly approached the door knob. I heard the six of them chatting it up in the other room. I put my paw on it and silently opened the door. The stairs, I remembered, creaked so I had to be careful going down the stairs. I set one foot down on the top step. Nothing. I made it down the 12 steps in like 5 minutes.

Riley and Mike waited at the top of the stairs. I motioned for them to come down but they wouldn't budge. After exchanging glances, they did carefully come down the stairs. I turned on the light beforehand so they could close the door.

"Never thought I'd sneak down into my own basement." Riley said once he reached the bottom. "Now why did you want to come here?"

"I thought we'd look around a bit. When was the last we did that?" I asked.

"Months."

"Exactly! So why not?"

"Fine. But if we get busted for skipping my parents' party, it's on you."

"We're only gonna be here for an hour." I said. The basement of this house is weird. It's basically two big rooms with boxes in one room and shelves in the other. I opened a box covered in dust; probably wasn't a good idea. Inside was just a couple of photo albums. I'm not really into photos as a lot of others are.

As I'm looking around, I just start looking around at the wall. Riley found a bunch of his old clothes from when he was 6. Mike didn't really do much. He just sat on the stairs with his legs hanging over the side.

I looked at the bottom of the box I was looking at and see something strange. I held it up so I can see better. It's a picture but I've never seen this person before. It's an older polar bear and she's with Angie. I looked at the back of it.

"Who's Janelle?" I asked.

"What'd you say?" Riley asked.

"I said 'who's Janelle?'"

"What do you mean?"

"I found this photo of someone named Janelle and she's with your cousin Angie." I walked over to them and show them the picture. Riley took it from me and looked closely.

"Not sure." He said. "She doesn't look familiar and I don't ever recall my parents ever saying that name."

"Should you dads?" Mike asked.

"No. Not a good idea. They'd know we were down here. I'll take it for now but I'll wait until we come down here again to ask them about it."

"Tell us when that happens, ok?"

"Alright." Riley pocketed the photo and went back to looking. I walked into the other room, eager to know if there was something else we could try to find. There's stuff that even Riley doesn't know about down here. And stuff like that has to be interesting.

The stuff on the shelves is mostly Christmas decorations. That and other stuff like oil, windshield wiper fluid, spare tires. Stuff like that. Towards the ceiling, there's a hole in the wall. "Riley, what's with this hole?" I asked.

"My dads told me that that's a crawl space. I'm not sure what for but that's what it is." He said. I grabbed a lawn chair from the other side of the room. I brought it underneath the giant hole in the wall. I thought if I stood on it, I'll be able to reach it.

"Jo, what're you doing?" Riley asked from the other room.

"I'm gonna see what this hole is!" I said.

"Oh no." Riley muttered.

"I heard that!" I carefully got on the chair. I could just barely look in the hole to see inside. Riley and Mike came into the room.

"Jo, get down from there." Riley said.

"Guys, get me a flashlight." I said.

"Why?" Mike asked.

"Just get me a flashlight, hurry."

"Here." Mike handed me his phone. I turned it on (there's a photos of him and Riley as his wallpaper, I'm not shocked) and shined it inside. Buried inside there was a box. Not just any box; a metal box. I set the phone down, reached inside, and grabbed it. It's a bit heavy but I carried Riley before so not that heavy.

Riley and Mike help me down from the chair, with the box in paws. I set it down on the ground and handed Mike his phone back.

"What is it?" Mike asked.

"I'm not sure." Riley said. "Maybe it belonged to the people who lived here before us."

"Either way, I want to know what's in it." I said. I gripped the lid and tried to open it; but of course it wouldn't open.

"You need a key, Jo." Riley said. Sure enough, I didn't see the keyhole that was there.

"Maybe a bobby pin or a paper clip could open it?" Mike asked.

"No. That's only a movie stereotype. I'll have to get a lock picking kit." Riley said. He took the box and picked it up. To me it was only about 10 or 15 pounds. "I'll get this to my room. You two need to distract those in the living room."

"Riley? Jo? Mike? Are you down there?" Todd's voice called from upstairs.

"Crud." I whispered. I took the box and shoved it under the shelf, covering it in a sheet. I brought the chair back to the other side of the room. The three of us then ran up the stairs before Todd could come down the stairs.

"Sorry, dad." Riley said when he closed the door.

"What were you doing down there?" Wendell asked.

"We just wanted to look around down there." Mike said. "We haven't done so in a while."

"Well, next time you two need to let us know before you do something. What if you got hurt?"

"How could we possibly get hurt?" I asked. The lack of response proved my point.

"Well, the others are gone. We're all gonna meet up for dinner later. Riley, we need to talk." Todd looked at me and Mike. "Alone."

Me and Mike went to the living room and sat on the couch. Wendell and Todd went to the kitchen with Riley. When the coast is clear, I get up and snack to the wall, just enough so I can hear them in the other room. I motion for Mike to stay on the couch.

"Listen, Riley." I heard Wendell say. "I know that you enjoy cousin Angie and cousin Bruno."

"Yeah. What's the problem?" Riley asked.

"When we were talking, Bruno... said something."

"What?"

"Well, a couple weeks ago, he had a bit of pain in his tail. He thought he sat on it wrong so he just ignored it. It still hurt the next day. When he told Angie, they went to the hospital where he was checked for any sort of stuff that could cause this."

"And? What's they say?"

"Well, it's hard to determine; but it looks like they found soemthing in his tail." Todd says. "Something that shouldn't be there."

"Dad. You're scaring me. What's wrong? What're you trying to tell me?"

"I'm trying to say..." Silence. "Bruno... has tail cancer."