Headscratchers / The Fox and the Hound 2

• This film never really made sense to me. It seems it writers weren't paying attention to the original. The original film implies that Tod and Copper had been together for only a few days as childhood friends. Think about it. Day 1: Tod and Copper meet and become friends. Day 2: Tod and Copper spend another day together, until Copper has to go back home. Day 3: Copper is tied up so he can't run away again. Tod visits him but inadvertently causes trouble by provoking Chief into chasing after him. Day 4: Copper leaves with Chief and Slade on a hunting trip. They don't return until months later and Tod and Copper have grown considerably during that time. Yet in the midquel, Copper is shown still living close to Tod and the two are still children. So at what point during the first film is the midquel supposed to take place? There's no room for it the way I see it.
• The only possible explanation is the whole movie takes place between Tod and Copper's second day together and the day Tod finds Copper tied up. OR the movie takes place in an alternative continuity from the first film where the events of the plot happened on Tod and Copper's second day together instead of what happened in the first film;