Fanfic / Fox in the Bunnyhouse

Judy never meets Nick on that fateful day at Jumbeaux’s ice-cream parlor. In fact, she doesn’t meet him until much later. However, her life still ended up getting turned upside down. It seems Nick isn’t the only fox who managed to get into her heart.

—Summary from Archive of Our Own

Fox in the Bunnyhouse is a Zootopia Fan Fic written by BookWorm07, being the sole work by the author.

In this fanfiction, Judy Hopps joins the ZPD at a time where mammals aren't going missing throughout Zootopia. For Want Of A Nail, Judy rescues an orphaned baby fox on her first real assignment, changing her future by adopting the kit as her son, Robin Hopps. Only after a few years does she meet Nick Wilde when the predators start to disappear and go savage, but now they have seven-year-old Robin in their lives to protect... but they don't know the other knows the kit.

Uploaded to Archive of Our Own starting on July 7th, 2017, Fox in the Bunnyhouse was completed February 24th, 2021, ending with a wordcount of 101,626 across twenty-four chapters. The story went dormant after Chapter Fourteen in May 2018 but returned with the remaining ten chapters in February 2021. Goes to show that a Dormant Fic isn't always a Dead Fic.

---

Fox in the Bunnyhouse contains examples of:

• Action Mom: Judy becomes this once she adopts Robin and is given actual police work. She is willing to do anything for Robin; whether it's telling anyone from her father to the mayor to suck it or fighting a savage fox and a flock of sheep terrorists to get her son back.
• Actually, I Am Her: Nick doesn't find out Judy is Robin's mother until the second to last chapter. Judy Plays it For Laughs by Obfuscating Stupidity until she lets her son introduce them each other, resulting in the following of Robin's dialogue interspersed with Nick's Inner Monologue.
  “Mom,” wait, what? “this is one of my best friends, Nick. Nick,” hold on “this is my mom,” come again? “Officer Judy Hopps” there is no way “with the ZPD.”
  Judy said nothing, a sly smirk curling one side of her muzzle.
  • To a lesser extent, Judy tries to find Otterton by finding the creator of the pawpsicles. While she does meet Nick in the process, she doesn't connect the two and gives up on that lead. At least until Mr. Big presents her with Nick and tells him he's a Con Artist and the one responsible for making the Pawpsicles.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Fru-Fru introduces Judy to Mr. Manchas so he can chauffer Robin to the Big Estate so he can be watched while Judy is away at work.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: Nick doesn't appear until Chapter Ten, prefaced by The Stinger of the previous chapter.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Chief Bogo. When Judy stands by her decision of adopting Robin, he gives her paid leave to adjust her living situations, Justifying his leniency because he can't fire a woman for having a child, and giving her the chance to further her career for her child's sake. Following the big Time Skip and gaining seven years of respect for Judy, he comes to recognize her as one of his most competent and valued officers (but still gets snappy sometimes).
• Adaptational Timespan Change: It takes seven years for the conflict of the movie to arise.
• Adapted Out
  • Duke Weaselton has no involvement in the endangerment of Fru-Fru's life nor the night howler plot, and doesn't appear at any point in the Fan Fic.
  • Due to having access to the police database, Judy never encounters Flash Slothmore to run limo plates for her, neither is she shown stopping him for drag racing.
  • Lionheart's wolves are never so much as mentioned, but Implied to be involved as the Missing Mammals incident is even occurring in the first place.
• Adoption Diss: Inverted. Robin's peers don't bully him for being adopted (just other reasons), but some of Judy's family were initially unsupportive of her decision to adopt him.
• Adoption Is Not an Option: Averted hard with this story. In fact, Judy adopting Robin was a somewhat impulsive option. She puts it on the table years later, when she asks her husband Nick what he thinks about adopting a second child.
• Adoptive Name Change: Justified. Helen Foxgrove never completed her grandson's birth certificate before she died, so Judy ends up naming him Robin when she adopts him.
• Affectionate Nickname: Robin gets a few.
  • Judy calls Robin her little "Bottlebrush" due to his fluffy tail.
  • Nick, a bit uncomfortable at first with the kid's name meaning Just Like Robin Hood, takes to calling him "Red".
    “Don’t worry about it, Red, it’s a compliment to be given a Nick-Name.”
  • Clawhauser also takes to calling him "Blue Eyes".
• Age Lift: As the Adaptational Timespan Change adds seven years to the story, Judy and Nick are now thirty-one and thirty-nine instead of twenty-four and thirty-two for the majority of the Fan Fic. The Happy Ending sees the Hopps-Wilde family celebrating Nick's forty-second birthday.
• Ageless Birthday Episode: Averted. At one point Judy recalls her experience celebrating her coworker Francine's 33rd birthday, and by doing the math, Nick is celebrating his 42nd birthday at the story's end.
• Aggressive Categorism: Lots of mammals consider all foxes foul, cunning creatures not the be trusted, with some Jerkasses unable to see an infant fox as nothing more than a future criminal. Ironically, some of the Hypocrites preaching this are doing things worse than anything any fox does in in this story.
• All-Loving Hero: After narrowly surviving Bellwether and her cronies' attempt on her and her son's lives, Judy still gives her detainees medical attention for the wounds they sustained from Nick going savage on them.
• All for Nothing: A low-stakes example. Judy tries to find out who created the Pawpsicle Mr. Otteron bought, but can't and gives up on that lead and — from questioning Yax and then Mr. Big — learns that Manchas was the last to see Emmit Otterton. When Mr. Big recognizes the Pawpsicle and brings Nick in to tell Judy what he knows about Otteron, Judy is already ahead of him and that information is useless.
• All of the Other Reindeer: The kids in Robin's after-school soccer team avoid playing with him. When Robin tries to give them the benefit of the doubt and tell them he knows how to play, his teammates tell him they won't play with him because their parents told them foxes are liars and cheats. Their harsh words lead Robin to skip his afterschool activities from then on, instead hanging out with Nick.
• Almighty Mom: On-duty Officer Judy Hopps gives the mayor "The Reason You Suck" Speech for proposing a bill set to oppress her son when he's older should it pass.
• Anonymous Public Phone Call: Defied by Officer Swinton when she leaks Manchas' condition to ZNN, as to identify herself as a reputable source for the claim predators are going savage. This bites her in the ass as it leads Internal Affairs directly after her for publicizing confidential medical records.
• Apathetic Clerk: The receptionist at child services doesn't bother with arranging an interview or doing a background check on Judy when she requests to adopt Robin; the sheep is just glad that the fox will be some one else's problem. Judy even Lampshades this apparent error.
• Ascended to Carnivorism: With her son's nutritional needs and the hassle of having to cook separate dishes, Judy started eating food with crickets in it. What started as a mistake turned into a frugal decision (with a hint of Guilty Pleasure).
• Berserk Button: Seeing others experience Fantastic Racism becomes a bigger trigger for Judy than underestimating her; directing it towards her son makes her livid.
• Big "WHAT?!": Chapter Twenty ends/Chapter Twenty-One begins with one. Judy gives it when Nick bluffs that her son is his son.
• Birthday Beginning: Inverted. The story ends with Nick celebrating his birthday with his new wife and son.
• Bland-Name Product
  • “For a headache, I usually just take a couple Tylionol.”
  • Alligatorade. Come on, that one's not even a mammal pun; it's a reptile! And Gatorade is already named after gators!
• Blinded by the Light: To buy time until the Tranquilizer Dart subdues Manchas, Nick sets his cellphone's flashlight to strobe setting to disorientate the savage jaguar until he loses consciousness.
• Bluffing the Authorities: Played for Laughs and Drama. Following Robin's kitnapping, Nick lies to Judy (who he doesn't know is Robin's mother) that he's his father so she'll let him help rescue him. Judy know its Blatant Lies and makes Nick dig himself deeper to find out what his intentions with her son are.
  “Unfortunately, falsely claiming guardianship over a minor to a law enforcement officer is a punishable offence – six months jail time.”
• Boxed Crook: Nick doesn't help Judy because she Blackmailed him. He helps her because Mr. Big is forcing him to do so.
• Bystander Syndrome: Averted. Robin was rescued after a noise complaint was made from a neighborhood where this trope is often PlayedStraight as the residents rarely call the police for anything less than a shooting.
  • Averted again when a mouse witnesses Robin being being abducted by one of Bellwether's goons and sends a phone recording to the police.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Judy gives one to her father once he finds out about Robin, as his first reaction was to believe the six-week-old fox broke into her apartment and ask her if she was Armed with Pepper Spray.
• Caught on Tape: An overlooked mouse records Jesse's abduction of Robin with his phone. Within hours Amber alerts are being issued and the footage of the kitnapping shown across the news.
• Cell Phones Are Useless: Averted. The characters are using their phones at their disposal, from using the flashlight to stun savage mammals to catching a child abduction on video and alerting the police.
• Chekhov's Gun
  • The fox repellant. Despite Judy's vehement disposal of it, it is brought up by Stu over voice call in the next chapter, prompting Judy to unleash an argument with her father.
  • The Pawpsicles. Robin starts visiting Nick's stand by the time Judy is assigned to the Emmitt Otterton case. Since she doesn't recognize the Pawpsicle Emmitt is pictured holding, her investigation into their seller will lead her to meet Nick for the first time. She doesn't connect the Pawpsicles to Nick... but Mr. Big does.
  • Judy's lucky carrot pen. Judy's use of it is idly mentioned throughout the story, but its recording function doesn't get used until Bellwether's Engineered Public Confession.
    “Our lovely mayor was quite chatty when she believed her audience would either be dead or savage within the hour.”
• Chekhov's Gunman: Renato Manchas. Shortly after Judy adopted Robin, Manchas was assigned to escort Robin to and from his godmother Fru-Fru and godcousin Ju-Ju. After a few years the Missing Mammal incident arises, and he is the last to see Mr. Otterton before being turned savage himself, per Canon. For Want Of A Nail, he is successfully subdued by the police before he can be taken to Cliffside, but a Whistleblower Wilma leaks his savage state to the news before the missing mammals are located.
• Chemically-Induced Insanity: Subverted with Nick. Him and Judy are caught completely off guard by the reveal of the night howlers, gets shot by Bellwether with the intention that he'll maul Judy and Robin to death for her. While he does go savage the calm, rural location for the planned murder gives Nick the reprieve to recognize the scent of a fox kit on Judy and Robin, turning Papa Bear when Bellwether direct him after Judy.
• Children Are Innocent: Robin has been a curious and kind kit his whole life for all the reader sees of it. Judy defends with this point when she gets astounded by bigots who see him as a Foul Fox even when he's only months old.
  • When Judy first told Robin that some mammals buy anti-fox products because they fear foxes and that Grandpa Stu used to be one of those mammals, Robin's first action upon seeing Stu again was to hug him and promise he'll never scare him.
  • When his soccer teammates avoid him at their first after-school practice, he assumes they think he doesn't know how the play and tries to explain to them hes has experience playing with his cousins in Bunnyburrow. He doesn't expect their real reasoning.
  • When Robin first tells Nick about his mother, the limited details he gives paints a dark picture for the older fox. Robin never gets the impression that Nick thought his mother was a Struggling Single Mom Stripper.
• Children Raise You: Judy's new motherhood teaches her a lot not just about raising a child as a first time mom, but also the prejudice foxes and other predators experience.
• Cliffhanger: BookWorm07 ends most of the chapters on one to immediately continue the next chapter. Possibly the most egregious was the one before the story went dormant for two years, Mr. Big orders his bears to bring in Nick to find out what he knows about Emmitt's disappearance.
• Come Alone: When Judy finds out that her son has been kidnapped, a blocked number requests this in a text.
  Have you lost something? Try the old warehouses; I hear the breeze off the water is to die for in the Savanna heat. No police.
• Completed Fic: Completed on February 24th, 2017; after 3 years, 7 months, 17 days (for half of which it was feared to be a Dead Fic).
• Contrived Coincidence: When Judy begins to contemplate on who is supposed to take care of Robin while she is at work, she gets a second meeting with Fru-Fru (and Kevin) who thanks her for saving her life and offers to share the live-in nanny she hired in anticipation for her unborn daughter.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Robin's biological family is dead by the Fan Fic's beginning.
• Cooldown Hug: Judy gives one to Manchas when he recounts to her what happened when he chauffeured Otterton.
• Cruel Elephant: Jerry Jumbeaux Jr, more so than Canon. Here he successfully kicks a Free-Range seven-year-old out of his store, all while insulting him and his mother, solely because of his species.
  “I don’t accept stolen money. Now you need to get out or I’ll call the cops; you’re holding up the line.”
• Cunning Like a Fox: Downplayed with Robin. He isn't as sly of a fox as Nick is, and is really only ever deceitful out of childish concerns to Don't Tell Mama. Nick immediately reads into Robin's worries about telling his mom about his bullying, chalking it up as an instinctual deceptiveness of a fox.
• Darker and Edgier: Fox in the Bunnyhouse furthers upon the themes of Fantastic Racism from Zootopia, exploring Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism while being presented with Tragedy, gun crime, sex work, child endangerment, and systematic problems that are bad enough without The Chessmaster making it worse. Plus Mr. Big's Gram-mama isn't the only one dead and gone, and neither hero nor villain refrain from acknowledging death. That's not to say it's devoid of humor or idealism however.
• Death by Adaptation: Mr. Wilde and any acknowledgment of his absence is absent from Zootopia. Here, it's explained away that he was killed in a hit and run before Nick can even remember.
• Death by Childbirth: Robin's biological mother died giving a natural birth to him at home.
• Death by Despair: Robin's biological grandmother is concluded to have Passed In Her Sleep due to this.
  Judy: A heart attack? At fifty-six?
  Bogo: It's been known to happen. It's also not too uncommon for older mammals to pass away from heartbreak shortly after the death of a loved one.
• Death by Irony: Discussed. Upon finding out Judy has a fox for a son, Bellwether plans on darting Robin so he could maul his mother to death.
  What better way to promote the necessity of Tame Collars than ZPD’s darling Judy Hopps, a mammal who loved predators and firmly believed in their goodness, killed by her own savage son. After all, every good initiative needs a martyr at the head.
• Death by Origin Story: Robin's biological family.
  • The father, Sam Swiftfoot, was killed by a car six months before his son was born.
  • The mother, Linda Foxgrove, faced Death by Childbirth thus leaving her newborn for her mother to care for.
  • The grandmother, Helen Foxgrove, died of a broken heart a month after loosing her daughter.
• Death Glare: Stu receives two from his wife and daughter once he suggests pepper spraying an infant fox.
  Bonnie didn’t say a word to her husband’s argument but the glare she gave him spoke volumes.
• Department of Child Disservices: Zootopia's child services is unable to pickup an orphaned infant (or at least one from the Wrong Side of the Tracks) from the police for hours, and once they find out its a fox, the baby is immediately written off as a burden until they grow out of the system. A receptionist openly admits to Judy of keeping a roster of where foxes are juggled between so no one orphanage is "burdened" more than another.
• The Diaper Change: After calling in to Clawhauser her findings of a deceased vixen and an orphaned kit, Judy spends the wait for an ambulance giving the unnamed Robin a diaper change and a bottle of formula. This also gives her the opportunity to identify the kit as a male.
• Dirty Cop: Deconstructed. Judy has odd ties with Mr. Big beyond being long-time friends with his Mafia Princess. The two have a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ Code of Honor where he doesn't do anything illegal around her so she isn't obligated to look into him. At most, she is willing to give Fru-Fru a warning beforehand if they had evidence against her father. Nick doesn't think it's a nuanced as that when he first finds out.
  “So, Carrots. Was it the dismal pay of a beat cop or the raging speciesism that made you turn to the mob?”
• Disappeared Dad: Nick's father was killed in a hit and run when he was a kit. Robin's father was also struck and killed at a red light before he was even born.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Only after impulsively adopting a month-year-old fox kit does Judy realize she doesn't know how to be a mother beyond her Big Sister Instinct, let alone one for a child that isn't a rabbit, and her boss expects her to have dropped of said child to foster care and be at work in five minutes.
  “Carrot sticks.”
  • After Bellwether shoots and turns Nick savage, she becomes irate when he won't attack Judy... and feebly runs for her life when the fox targets her, getting chased down and mauled a fair bit. Exaggerated when Jesse and Woolter come in unarmed to pull Nick off of her, leading Nick to see the rams as bigger threats and turn his ire to them.
• Distant Finale: Downplayed. Half of the final chapter is set three years later.
• Don't Tell Mama: Played for Drama.
  • Nick kept his profession as a Con Artist a secret from his mother until he was thirty, cutting contact out of shame once she found out.
  • Robin starts to treat the most innocent of things with this regard when he learns about the Fantastic Racism towards foxes; he gets the impression that if all foxes are criminals, then his mother would have to arrest him for being a criminal.
• Downer Beginning: The first two chapters sees Judy (a rookie cop that has been stuck as a Traffic Warden for six weeks) being given her first assignment, only to find a crying orphaned infant alone in a rundown apartment with his dead grandmother, all hinging on an unassuming noise complaint that very well might not have been made.
• The Driver: Mr. Manchas becomes this for Robin, chauffeuring the kit to stay with Fru-Fru while Judy is away at work. When Manchas isn't available, Raymond or Kevin fill in for him.
• Dramatic Irony: Hoo boy, there's a lot.
  • The biggest source of it is how long it takes Nick to find out that Judy is Robin's adoptive mother. He doesn't connect the dots until Robin spells it out for him in Chapter Twenty-Three; ten chapters after meeting Judy at Jumbeaux's and thirteen from when he first met Robin.
    • When Nick finds Judy setting off to confront Robin's kitnappers, he convinces her to take him with for the rescue by saying he's his father, not knowing he's talking the mother of the child he's claiming custody of. Despite knowing his Blatant Lie, she caves because of the obvious concern he has for Robin.
    • Before Robin formally introduces Judy and Nick to each other, the now-knowledgeable Judy teases the still-oblivious Nick for lying to her about being Robin's son and knowing his mother, using Exact Words that Robin's mother won't press charges and will allow them to keep contact.
  • When Judy observes the sanitation violations at Jumbeaux’s Ice Cream Parlour, she makes a mental note to not bring her son there, unaware that he was there and refused service two days before.
    • In further Irony, during that same visit Judy blackmails Jumbeaux into serving a Jumbo Pop to Nick, unknowingly securing the resources for the manufacturer of the Pawpsicles' she was trying to track down until she considered it a dead lead.
• Dysfunctional Family: The Wilde family. The Disappeared Dad died when his son was young, the Struggling Single Mother is stuck in a Dead End Job as a waitress, and a traumatic event leads the son to leave home. The Runaway keeps tabs with his mother as he becomes a Con Artist behind her back, lying to her for eighteen years until his secret's blown and he cuts ties out of shame.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Robin Jedidiah Hopps.
• Engineered Public Confession: Played With. Judy and Nick arrive at the abandoned warehouse were Robin is being held hostage, Judy sets her carrot pen to record before confronting the unidentified culprits. Inside, they are surprised to get Bellwether Evil Gloating about The Conspiracy they never even knew existed.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Having sprung her trap, Bellwether monologues to Judy her plan to kill her by having her mauled to death by Nick, painting her as an Inspirational Martyr for her plans. Thinking she means to Make It Look Like an Accident, Judy argues she wouldn't be able to fool medical examiners and she's crazy if she expects Nick to go savage on her whim. Bellwether answers with nothing more than a Cheshire Cat Grin as Judy takes the Dramatic Pause to put all the pieces together.
  “Did the penny just drop, rabbit?”
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Nick, but Downplayed as he's just a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. After running away from home, he still called his mother every week and visited on holidays for eighteen years, until she found out he was a Con Artist and he dropped contact with her; the guilt of doing so eating him alive for the next nine years until they reunite after he turns his life around.
• Evil Orphanage Lady: The Fantastically Racist sheep receptionist at Zootopia's child services office, who implies all the orphanages in the city share her sentiments. The ewe vehemently voices her grievances with having to deal with orphaned foxes, inadvertently convincing Judy that Zootopia's foster care system is not the best choice.
  "Not another one!" [...] "We just got rid of the last one not even six months ago."
• Evil Uncle: Downplayed with Jadon, the eldest in Judy's litter. His first response to seeing the kit that his sister adopted is a fox is to ask her if her senses have all gone to mush and remind her of the Gideon Grey incident.
• Exact Words
  • Judy tells Bellwether in no uncertain terms that she'll fight her Shock Collar bill until her dying breath to protect her son from Government-Exploited Crisis. Bellwether promptly decides to take her by her word.
  • On a lighter note when Judy chastises Nick for lying to her that he's Robin's father, she is Obfuscating Stupidity that she is his mother as she assures him that Robin's mother won't hold it against him and will allow them to keep their Intergenerational Friendship.
• Exty Years from Publication: The majority of the Fan Fic takes place in May and June of 2017, the same year the first few chapters of Fox in the Bunnyhouse were posted.
• Failed a Spot Check
  • Acting Mayor Bellwether proposes to Chief Bogo and Officer Hopps a mandate for enforcing Shock Collars on predators, expecting Judy's support as a fellow small prey mammal. This backfires and destroys the rabbit's opinion of her because Dawn never bothered to learn that Judy is the proud mother of a fox.
  • Jesse fails to check a bathroom before abducting Robin from it, leading for a video of an eye-patched ram abducting a fox kit to spread across the news.
  Doug: He said he forgot to check all the stalls were empty. Personally, I think he forgot to check at all.
• Faint in Shock: Stu Hopps sputters and falls back when Judy confesses over video call that she adopted a fox.
• False Dichotomy: Ostracized from a post-game ice cream celebration, Robin convinces himself with just two options with the $20 his mother gave him — buy some ice cream without his bully teammates or not buy anything and disappoint his mother with the truth — when he could easily lie after using the money to buy something else or just get rid of it.
• Family Theme Naming
  • It is Implied that Bonnie and Stu name the kits in each litter with Added Alliterative Appeal. Two of Judy's littermates are named Jadon and Jill.
  • Fru-Fru and her daughter Judy, nicknamed "Ju-Ju".
• Fan-Created Offspring: Robin. Of the adopted variety, as he is not biological related to any main characters.
• Fish out of Water: Judy had some parenting experience helping raise her younger siblings, but a becoming a full-time mom for a child of a different species is new waters for her at first.
• Follow in My Footsteps: A positive example, Judy raises Robin into a Go-Getter Guy, encouraging him to become a mold-breaker like she is in whatever his Goal in Life will be.
• For Want Of A Nail: Depending on that the missing mammals incident and the night howler crisis doesn't occur for another seven years after Judy becomes a police officer, Fox in the Bunnyhouse centers on What If? Judy and Nick hadn't met under the same circumstances, and Judy had the experience of a decorated officer and proud mother of a fox kit once they do. Further deviations arise from this, such as that the police got to Manchas before Lionheart's wolves could, Judy never drove Nick away with careless words or turns in her Medal of Dishonor, and that Nick and Judy don't find out about the night howlers until they're at Bellwether's mercy.
• Former Bigot: overcome their prejudices differently from how they do in the film.
  • Judy Hopps overcomes her instilled Fantastic Racism as she does in the movie, but not because of seeing the damages her careless words can do but because of seeing the hatred people can have against a defenseless newborn just because of his species and coming.
  • Chief Bogo lives by Animal Stereotypes when Judy's new on the job; she's convinced that the only reason he didn't fight her offer to take care of Robin until child services were available was so he wouldn't want to care for a Foul Fox for the night. But over the years, as Judy puts it, “[as she] kept proving him wrong about rabbit stereotypes, he started to question other stereotypes he had always taken at face value.”
  • Stu Hopps comes to recognize his attitude towards predators (namely foxes) after it strains his relationship with Judy when he naïvely suggested she would have to use self-defense on a one-month-old fox. He goes an awkward struggle in his efforts to accept Robin as his new grandson and regain his daughter's trust, expanding his horizon such as by starting a business partnership with Gideon and banning Fox Away products from the Hopps burrow. After a few years he's become more rational (albeit still a bit of a Nervous Wreck) by the time of the night howler crisis, as he is only concerned by the physical threat of a savage mammal could pose and not just by their existence as a predator.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Averted. Nick and Judy tie the knot after about two years of dating.
• Getting the Baby to Sleep: Her first night with the then-unnamed Robin, Judy was "stuck trying every trick in the book to get him back to sleep" until "he finally, finally, drifted off" and she cuddled up to him as a makeshift crib. Despite the hours of sleep lost, in the morning Judy finds it to be the best rest she had since moving to Zootopia.
• The Ghost: Despite their importance to the plot, Mayor Lionheart and Dr. Honey Badger are never directly seen or heard from, only relayed through secondhand accounts and the results of their action. Additional characters like Gazelle or Nangi are only given off mentions by Clawhauser and Yax.
• Give Him a Normal Life: Judy's decision for adopting Robin and raising him as her son as opposed to him being pushed around a bunch of orphanages for eighteen years.
• Give the Baby a Father: After a couple of years, Judy started dating with hopes that she'd be able to find a prospective father figure for Robin. By thirty-one, "she had had eight prospective bucks and eight failed first dates." She finally gives him that father by thirty-three.
• Good with Numbers: Zig-Zagged. Robin can handle second grade multiplication questions (his mother taught him how to after all) but finds trouble with division. Nick starts spending time away from his scams to help him through his math textbooks.
• Gossipy Hens: When first taking the as-of-then unnamed Robin home, Judy and him become the subject of two on the subway. The zebra Sherly and the deer Janet shamelessly spout bigoted theories of Robin's parents and how its In the Blood for foxes to be criminals until Judy gets in their faces about it.
• Happily Adopted: Judy and Robin deeply care for each other and anything that could ruin their family of two is a great fear for them both. For a birthday present, Robin and Judy give Nick joint custody.
• Happy Ending: Nick and Judy Wilde, ten-months-married, celebrating the former's birthday. finalizing Nick's custody of Robin, Judy brings up the idea adopting another.
• Hates Being Called Cute: Judy indicates Robin gave this response when she told him he looked cute in his new soccer uniform; Clawhauser sarcastically asks where that behavior came from.
• Heartbreak and Ice Cream: Robin's plans to have ice cream to celebrates with his soccer teammates turns to this. This is further delayed by Jumbeaux kicking him out of his shop, leaving Nick's Pawpsicle stand as the next option.
• Het: Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Judy gets such a bad reputation serving as a Traffic Warden for six weeks straight that, Mayor Lionheart gets upset that she's seen as nothing more than a Meddlesome Patrolwoman.
  Chief Bogo: The mayor has been a rather annoying thorn in my hide for the last few weeks. Constantly asking why the first gradate of his ‘Mammal Inclusion Initiative’ is getting such bad reception because all she’s doing is pissing taxing paying mammals off with her high ticket count.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard
  • Officer Swinton is easily found out as a Whistleblower Wilma because she told ZNN who she was to convey her credibility as a police officer.
  • Bellwether does some Evil Gloating before turning Nick savage and having Judy Fed to the Beast, only for Nick to attack her and her Mooks and Judy to survive with an Engineered Public Confession.

• Hold Your Hippogriffs
  • Rabbits sometimes use the indefinite pronouns "everybunny" and "somebunny" in reference to other rabbits.
    Bonnie Hopps: Jadon! When I told Pop Pop not to talk like that, that includes everybunny!
  • Amber alerts are issued when a kitnapping occurs.

• Honorary Uncle
  • Judy and Fru-Fru become godmothers of each other's child, with Robin and Ju-Ju becoming godcousins.
  • Robin calls Gideon Grey his "uncle Gid".

• Horrible Judge of Character: Acting Mayor Bellwether expects Judy Hopps to support her proposal for a Shock Collar mandate due to her being a small prey animal from the conservative podunk of Bunnyburrow. Because of this and having Failed a Spot Check, she ends up poking the Mama Bear and Judy vows to become her most vocal critic.

• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Implied to be Averted. Happily Married, Judy considers adopting a second child before conceiving one with Nick, possibly because that is impossible for their Interspecies Romance.

• Hug and Comment: Played for Drama in a Flashback. After Judy told Robin how his grandpa Stu felt about foxes before his Heel–Face Turn, Robin hugged Stu and assured him he doesn't have to be afraid of him, and he'll do everything he can to make his grandpa feel safe. Stu broke down crying and apologizing that his past actions made his grandson feel he had to promise him something like that.

• I Ate WHAT?!: Zig-Zagged. After Robin started eating solid food and a particularly draining day at work, Judy accidentally reheated and ate from a bowl of Robin's carrot cricket stew instead of her regular carrot stew. Following a crisis of realizing what she ate, realizing she liked it, and panicking over whether she had poisoned herself or not, composes herself and soon enough eating crickets becomes a Guilty Pleasure for the rabbit.

• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Despite the format of Archive of Our Own numbering a work's chapters by nature, each chapter is titled "Chapter [cardinal number]"... except for the first chapter, which uses the numeral "1" instead of the lingual "One".

• I Do Not Own: A disclaimer written in some way is included in the author's note at the beginning of each chapter. The following is at the start of Chapter 1:
  Disclaimer: Zootopia and all it's characters belong to Disney (sigh)
  This fanwork and any of my OC's belong to me (Muhahahaha)

• I Have Your Wife: Doug sends Jesse to abduct Robin so Judy can be Lured into a Trap to kill her and use her murder as an Inspirational Martyr.

• Imagined Innuendo: Nick expects Robin's mother, who he assumes to be a disadvantaged vixen, would own handcuffs for only one reason.

• Implied Death Threat: Played With. When Nick asks "Carrots" how she got involved with Mr. Big, Judy tells him “[he's] going to want to refrain from calling [her] Carrots.” Recognizing his fearful expression at their limo driver and that he's under the impression she's a Dirty Cop, she does a Verbal Backspace to calm him down.
  “Sweet cheese and crackers! Not like that! I’m not about to sic Raymond on you Nick, so you can calm down.”

• I Never Told You My Name: Judy asks Fru-Fru how she knew her name to name her unborn daughter after. Fru-Fru's explanation of how her daddy "had her researched" (and her polar bear chauffeur) tips Judy off that the shrew is a Mafia Princess, but gratefully chooses not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

• Ironic Name: A sloth librarian named Mr. Speedster.

• In Spite of a Nail: Follows many Stations of the Canon despite the changes to the timeline and characters' pasts.
  • Judy and Nick first meet in Jumbeaux's where the former advocates for the latter. Judy is not there because she's suspicious of Nick, but because she's suspicious of the Pawpsicle vendor.
    • Despite being unable to identify the vendor as Nick and get his witness testimony, Judy still makes it to the Mystery Springs Oasis using the information she got from Mrs. Otterton.
  • The missing mammals are still found and savage mammals break the news, albeit the other way around this time.
  • Narrowly thwart a Near-Villain Victory, making it out alive with an Engineered Public Confession from Bellwether

• Innocent Blue Eyes: Robin's most distinguishing feature is his eyes, with his namesake due to their comparison to robin eggs. The trope name even gets Title Dropped in the epilogue's prose.

• Instant Sedation: Averted.
  • It takes a few moments for Judy's Tranquilizer Dart to knock the savage Manchas out, for which Nick buys time for by using his phone flashlight.
  • When Judy tranquilizes a savage Nick, it takes as short while for him to stop tenderizing Woolter’s shoulder with his teeth. Woolter has the gall to plead for her help as they wait for Nick to loose consciousness.

• Intergenerational Friendship: The 39-year-old Nick befriends the 7-year-old Robin, the kit turning the Defrosting Ice King into a Parental Substitute.

• Interspecies Adoption: Judy Hopps, a European rabbit, adopts a red fox kit, naming him Robin Hopps.

• Kids Are Cruel: At his first soccer practice, the other kids on Robin's team refuse to pass the ball to him. After the game, they make it clear that their parents told them foxes are not to be trusted, and they would never play with a Foul Fox.

• Kids Hate Vegetables: Inverted. Being raised by a rabbit has given Robin an affinity for carrots.

• Last-Minute Baby Naming: In Chapter Four, Judy justifies the exaggeration of this trope, explaining that some mammals leave their child unnamed a few months until they can gauge an appropriate one once their personality comes in. She also plays it straight herself, as a second later she finds herself having to name the fox kit in the middle of his adoption process.

• Last-Name Basis: Despite respectively being the grandfather to her goddaughter and having him as her son's chauffer for seven years, Judy politely calls Mr. Big and Mr. Manchas by their surnames. Played Straight with Mr. Big, but she calls him Renato when Manchas gets shot with a night howler pellet.

• Like Father, Like Son: Robin ends up adopting a few of his mother's Character Tics; his nose twitches when he's curious or scared, he binkies out of excitement, he's good at multiplication.

• Lip Losses: Judy ends up nervously biting her lip to the point of bleeding when worrying about how she's tell Chief Bogo she'll be late for work because she adopted the fox kit she was expected to give to child services.

• A Lizard Named "Liz"
  • Linda and Helen Foxglove.
  • Robin's second grade teacher, a beaver named Mrs. Flattail.
  • Portia Swinton, a Police Pig and Whistleblower Wilma.
  • Eugene Smalls, an overlooked businessmouse.
  • Dr. Wolfsbane, a she-wolf overseeing Nick's recovery from night howler poisoning.

• Luke, I Am Your Father: Subverted. Nick tells Judy that Robin is his son so she'll let him help her rescue him from his kitnappers. This is Blatant Lies and he's completely oblivious that's he's making this claim to Robin's Glamorous Single Mother.
  “He’s my son!” Nick blurted.
  “What?!”

• Lured into a Trap
  • Bellwether instructs Doug to dart Manchas once the police has connected him to Otterton's disappearance, wanting carnage.
  “And make sure there are casualties this time,” a tinny voice could be heard from the speaker, “we’ve made them worried, now we need to make them afraid.”
  • Bellwether arranges another one specifically to take out Judy after she vows to protest her Shock Collar bill until her dying breath. She plans this by kitnapping Robin to have her Come Alone to a place where she'll turn Robin savage and have Judy mauled to death by her son she's come to rescue.

• Making Room for Baby: Judy moves out of the Grand Pangolin Arms, buying a larger flat in a condominium building to raise Robin in.

• Mama Bear: Judy becomes fiercely protective of Robin, doing everything from adopting him to keep him away from Child Disservices, lashing out at anyone mistreating him for being a fox, or going rogue to rescue him from his kitnappers.

• Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Downplayed. Mrs. Wilde, who sought to defy the Foul Fox stereotype, was left distraught when she found out her son gave in, became a Con Artist, and kept it secret from her for years.

• Mandatory Motherhood: Judy has occasionally stopped and considered how this is with rabbits, especially after growing attached to and adopting Robin. She knows that Not Wanting Kids Is Weird even for her, and expected finding herself a nice buck and having a few kit sometime in the indeterminate future until Robin came along.

• Meaningful Echo: A few are made with the original work.
  • Like Nick as a child, a woodchuck is the one to reveal the bullies' true colors to Robin.
    "Even though you're a fox?"
    "Why would we pass the ball to a fox?"
  • Jumbeaux Jr. tells Robin he doesn't need his kind "skulking around during daylight hours" and to go find an ice cream parlor in their "part of town".
  • Judy's Empty Cop Threat of jailtime against Nick for lying to her that he's Robin's father emulates how she Blackmails him for tax evasion in the film.
  • Judy and Nick's final lines in the story are a near perfect recital of their final exchange with each other in the film, now under the context of a Happily Married couple considering a second child.
    “I love you, you know that?”
    “Do I know that? Yes, yes I do.”
• Meaningful Name: Judy gave Robin a Line-of-Sight Name, inspired by the kit's Innocent Blue Eyes as they reminded her of robin eggs. She also choose the middle name Jedidiah (Hebrew: יְדִידְיָה, "beloved of the Lord") as she vows to love him as her child.
  • Discussed by both Gideon Grey and Nick Wilde when they learn Robin's name. Both were Right for the Wrong Reasons as they assumed he was Named After Somebody Famous to foxes, Robin Hood; Judy hadn't known of the character until Gideon told her and she found a Double Meaning in her son's name.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: Judy, indirectly. Nick comes to the conclusion that Robin's mother is a vixen working as a hooker. He ends up voicing his theory to Judy when the truth is the exact opposite: Robin's mom a rabbit police officer.
• Mistaken from Behind: Robin mistakes a rabbit for his aunt Jill sent to pick him up at the train station. While confused how a fox confused a rabbit for his aunt, the doe offers to help him find her, which Robin politely declines.
• The Mob Boss Is Scarier: Deconstructed by Judy. She correctly deduces that Nick has no logical motive to be The Informant unless Mr. Big is forcing him to under threat of getting iced. She assures Nick its just a bluff as Mr. Big's Code of Honour and respect for Judy makes is so he would never kill someone for failing her lest that weight on her conscience.
• Momma's Boy
  • Robin loves Judy as his mother dearly. The idea of losing her love becomes a fear for him.
  • Nick is to a lesser extent, as despite being estranged from his mother for nine years, he still cares about her and transacts money into her bank account. Once Judy and Robin turn his life around, he finds the emotional strength to reconcile with her.

• Mythology Gag
  • Happy Town is a Wrong Side of the Tracks seen in concept art for the film. This was where Nick's father had his clothing store before both were cut during production.
  • Judy recalls her Pop-Pop's opinions of foxes and how they're "red devils", alluding to a Deleted Scene. True to self, Pop-Pop voices that foxes are red because they are made by the devil when his great-grandson Robin visits Bunnyburrow for the first time.
  • Mayor Swinton was the Corrupt Politician in earlier scripts for the movie who remained a Development Gag as an extra at the DMV and a prison officer. Here, Officer Portia Swinton is a whistleblower for the predators going savage before the missing mammals are found.
  • Tame Collars, removed from Zootopia when it was made Lighter and Fluffier, are discussed with Bellwether's plans to mandate all predators above the age of twelve to be fixed with one.

• Never Given a Name: Robin was never given one by his birth family before he was orphaned, possibly due to cultural reasons.

• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Bellwether does this out of her obsession to kill Judy for propaganda. Both Judy and Nick were nowhere on her trail and completely oblivious to the night howlers' existence when they are Lured into a Trap with Robin as bait, where Bellwether reveals herself to give a Motive Rant uncovering The Conspiracy for them and giving a Engineered Public Confession of a magnitude no-one expected.

• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Defied by the child services' Apathetic Clerk. When Judy points out there should be a social worker to run a background check before she can adopt Robin, the sheep admits there should be one to do that but she's skipping it so she doesn't have to deal with a fox in the foster system and get it over with; Judy suppresses her rage at the gross lack of procedure in handling a child's custody.

• O.C. Stand-in: A case with a cut character turned Development Gag from the film, the pig warden/Mayor Swinton. Officer Portia Swinton, who whistleblows the savage Manchas to the media.

• One Dose Fits All
  • Averted as Judy is specified to use a dosage meant for large mammals to tranquilize Manchas after he goes savage. It takes a medium mammal dart for her to stop Nick from attacking Woolter.
  • Bethwether decides to work around this trope when Robin's kitnapping becomes too publicized for her to turn him savage on Judy without suspicion.
    “All anyone knows right now is that a fox was kitnapped by a nobody ram, we’ll roll with that – stage it as a kitnapping gone wrong. The son ‘accidently’ overdosed on tranquilizers and Judy, not paying attention in her grief, fatally shot by the kitnapper during his escape attempt.”

• Original Character: The staple example is the Deuteragonist Robin Hopps, the adopted Fan-Created Offspring of Judy Hopps. In addition to him, there are a few named Bit Characters as well.

• Parental Substitute: Nick starts filling in the absent father role in Robin's life before he even first meets Judy.

• Parents as People: Not just Judy's parents but Judy herself. They can be worried about their children and their means to take care of them, whether their reasons be irrational or justified. They can make mistakes that threaten their children's opinions of them, or their opinions of their children can shape each others actions.

• Passed in Their Sleep: Judy finds the body of a middle-aged fox who died this way in response to a noise complaint call. Coroners determine that Helen Foxgrove died about twenty-four hours before Judy made the discovery, with heartbreak syndrome ruled as likely cause for her early death.

• Phony Veteran: A snide line indicates that Bonnie's father, Pop-Pop, spends his days "talking of his time in the war (which never actually happened)". Note the Ambiguous Syntax for whether his service or the war as a whole is fictional.

• Posthumous Character: Robin's biological father, mother, and grandmother, as well as Nick's father.

• Precision F-Strike: As Bellweather gives her villainous monologue explaining her plans for using Shock Collars to "tame" predators as a safety precaution, Judy explodes with a “That’s bullshit!”

• Promoted to Love Interest: Judy and Nick are never explicitly stated in Zootopia or by Word of God to be an Official Couple (just Ship Teased), but it is a One True Pairing BookWorm07 agrees with and incorporates into the latter half of Fox in the Bunnyhouse.

• Punny Name: The Starry Night was painted by Vincent van Goat.

• Raised by Grandparents: Downplayed. After his biological mother died, Robin was cared for by his maternal grandmother until she died from heartbreak just a month later.

• "The Reason You Suck" Speech
  • Judy gives one to a pair of Gossipy Hens who start spouting cruel words at the sight of her with an orphaned fox kit. After asking how her personal life became their business, Judy explains the circumstances and asks them to show some compassion and not judge a mammal based on their species. Sherly doesn't take Judy's words to heart however, and says just because she's the mayor's naïve Affirmative Action Girl doesn't mean she can tell them how to act and the city's better off with two less foxes.
  • She gives another to Mayor Bellwether when she expects the ZPD to sponsor a Shock Collar mandate for all predators above twelve. Judy calls out the idea for what it is: an anti-predator agenda in a Government-Exploited Crisis with no plans of being overturned. She ends up shoving her phone with a picture of Robin into Bellwether's face to guilt her before storming out of the mayoral office.
    Chief Bogo: “I think we’re done here, Mayor Bellwether. Officer Hopps expressed my opinion beautifully, if less diplomatically. You can safely assume that the ZPD will not now, or ever, support your mandate if you choose to go through with it.”

• Recruit the Muggles: Zig-Zagged. Judy is reluctant to bring Nick along as anything more than The Informant because she doesn't want to put a civilian in harm's way. Nick is a Non-Action Guy but doesn't want to abandon Judy when things get dire. Mr. Big doesn't want Nick to fail his granddaughter's godmother. Judy takes whatever help she can get when she sets off to confront whoever kitnapped her son.

• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Averted. Judy saves Bellwether and her minions from Nick after they turned him savage, treating their wounds after arresting them.

• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Nick correctly assumes Robin has a Meaningful Name; however its not because his mother likes folklore but just because his Innocent Blue Eyes reminded her of robin eggs.

• The Runaway: Nick ran away the day he was muzzled, keeping tabs with her as he became The Artful Dodger until she found out the truth. Following the Time Skip, he hadn't seen her in nine years and still feels guilt over how he worried her.

• Scary Librarian: Inverted. The elderly sloth at the library Robin goes to is a Cool Old Guy who tells good jokes (even though he takes a while to get to the punchline).

• Shipping: The story is tagged with the Het ship Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde, coming into play the later chapters after they meet again in Chapter Fifteen.

• Single-Issue Landlord: Ms. Armadillo doesn't care when one of her tenants suddenly comes back with a child or that they're a fox; she just wants to make sure Judy didn't lose her key and knows that despite the new addition the complimentary delousing is still only once a month.

• Shout-Out
  • Robin is a Meaningful Name in fox culture due to a Hero of Sherwood. Judy only learns the importance of it after reconciling with Gideon.
    • Additionally, Nick Wilde's mother is named as Marian.
  • When Nick first meets Robin, he vaguely recognizes his t-shirt to display a Superman Substitute, "SuperBunny or other."
  • One of Robin's favorite cousins is named Peter.

• Shooting Lessons From Your Parents: An inversion where the parent isn't teaching their child how to use weapons, but to stay safe from ones marketed for use against the child. In a Flashback, Judy warns Robin about anti-fox products, gently explaining that some mammals are afraid of foxes and others sell them weapons telling them it will make them safe, but those mammals are wrong. Judy is initially conflicted over whether to tell her son about the hate in the world or not, but her police training helps her determine that weapon safety trumps keeping him oblivious and vulnerable.

• Show Within a Show: Robin Hood (1973) is ostensibly the adaptation of Robin Hood within the story. Judy becomes enamored with The Hero of Sherwood and it becomes her and Robin's favorite bedtime story.

• Small Parent, Huge Child: Discussed. As a seven-year-old, Robin is already mother, set to become twice her size once he's an adult fox. Judy tells him that (like his cousins) he isn't allowed to drive the Hopps' tractor until they're thirteen, even if he's tall enough by then.

• Small Role, Big Impact: Several.
  • Whoever made the noise complaint for an orphaned fox kit's crying. If it weren't for them, Judy never would've found let alone adopt Robin.
  • Jerry Jumbeaux Jr. oddly has a bigger role than in the movie but nonetheless serves two big impacts, being involved with Nick's first meeting with Robin and later Judy. She also questions Jumbeaux for her current lead on Otteron's disappearnce, asking him if he sells Pawpsicles or knows who does.
  • Portia Swinton, The Stool Pigeon that leaks evidence of Manchas going savage to Zootopia News Network, believing it too dangerous for the police to keep it a secret while they investigate,
  • Eugene Smalls, a little mouse that goes overlooked as Jesse abducts Robin from the train station bathroom. Eugene gets it all Caught on Tape and his video breaks the news in hours.

• Smells of Death: Judy immediately smells the deceased Helen Foxglove when she gets into Apartment 5B. Discussed further in that the ZPD Academy has a mandatory class on scent training to recognize the five stages of decay.

• Spoofs "R" Us: Judy goes shopping for baby supplies at Kits "R" Us in Chapter Seven, and recalls past experiences with a subsidiary dedicated to rabbits, Bunnies "R" Us.

• Struggling Single Mother: Downplayed with Judy. At first she's a Fish out of Water when it comes to raising Robin, but after sorting things out with Fru-Fru's help and a few years to settle, her financial situations are stable and her biggest concern is finding him a paternal figure.
  • Nick also naturally assumes this of whoever Robin's mother is due to his own mother's experiences.

• Stations of the Canon: Everything up to Judy's hire; Judy saving Fru-Fru from being crushed; predators go missing through out Zootopia; Judy meets Nick at Jumbeaux's during the Missing Mammals incident; Otterton is tracked from Mystery Springs Oasis to Manchas, who also gets darted; a news conference is made after the savage mammals are uncovered; more predators are turned savage as Bellwether becomes mayor, causing panic in the city; Judy and Nick uncover the truth of the night howlers; and Bellwether and her cronies (possibly sans Doug) get arrested. Other stations such as Judy reconciling with Gideon and Nick joining Judy on her investigation also occur, but out of order from the movie's series of events.

• Stag Party: Of Distaff Counterpart. After the Time Skip, Judy attended her coworker Francine's birthday party that devolved into a premature bachelorette party at a male strip club celebrating the elephant's engagement.

• The Stool Pigeon
  • News of savage mammals breaks when a police officer tips off ZNN with medical records Manchas' savage state.
    • In the aftermath of that, Dr. Honey Badger confesses her involvement with the fourteen missing mammals being held at Cliffside.
  • After Bellwether and her associates are arrested, the other sheep accept plea deals to testify against her and identify the night howlers as the serum's active ingredient.

• Stripper/Cop Confusion: A rare example born not from visual misconception but from an Imagined Innuendo From the Mouths of Babes. Nick assumes only one thing when Robin naïvely mentions his mother is physically active and handcuffs "mammals who were naughty" at her job.
  With no vixens on the force (not like they’d let one on the force) and, based off the information he’d pieced together from what the kit had told him, no mate at home, that left only one option.
  Robin’s mom was a hooker.
• Sweet Sheep: Averted, every one in here is a Jerkass.
• Switching P.O.V.: The third person perspective of the story follows Judy for the first eight chapters, but starts to look over the shoulders of characters in the middle of Chapter Nine.
• Symbolic Weapon Discarding: The second Judy realizes the Fox Away repellent is in her Utility Belt when she brings Robin home, she chucks the can down her apartment's garbage chute with a promise.
  “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, especially not with an Anti-Fox product.”
• Take Care of the Kids: A non-fatal example. When Mayor Bellwether starts proposing oppressive measures as the number of savage mammal attacks continue to rise, Judy decides to send Robin away to live with their family in Bunnyburrow. He gets kitnapped before he can board the train.
  Chief Bogo: Hopps! Where are you going?
  Judy: To get my son out of this city. There’s going to be rough seas ahead, Chief, and I want him on solid land when the storm hits.
• Taken Off the Case: Chief Bogo takes Judy off the Missing Mammals case before leaving to arrest Mayor Lionheart, justifying that Manchas' nature as a family friend would make her involvement open to debate as conflict of interest in court.
• The End: FIN
• Think Nothing of It: Played for Laughs.
  Nick: Don’t mention it. Seriously, don’t. I’m a salesman, I can’t have my reputation questioned.
  [...]
  Robin: Thank you, Nick!
  Nick: I told you not to mention it.
  Robin: Mention what?
  Nick: Exactly!
• Time Skip: There are several in and between chapters, the most egregious is the "Seven Years Later" in the middle of Chapter Nine. Another sizeable "Three Years Later" prefaces the Distant Finale.
• Traffic Warden: In Canon, Judy only spends her first two days giving tickets. Here, she's been stuck for a month and a half doing a Dead End Job until Mayor Lionheart steps in and orders Chief Bogo to give her a real assignment.
• Tranquillizer Dart: A Chase Scene with Manchas is Averted as Judy, an experienced and equipped officer, utilizes her tranq pistol to subdue the jaguar.
• Trauma Conga Line: On his first day of soccer practice, Robin learns that some people will see him as nothing but a Foul Fox when he gets shunned by his teammates, kicked out of an ice cream parlor while trying to distract himself, all while his child logic tells him that his mother will think he's a criminal too.
• Umpteenth Customer: Assuming Robin has a Struggling Single Mother as he did as a child, Nick tries to pull one out of pity for Robin to give him a Pawpsicle for free, specifically the spare he keeps for himself.
  “What is this?” he questioned the kit dramatically, paw on chest as if affronted, “Don’t you know?” Not waiting for an answer, he continued immediately, “Winners of the special Pawpsicle don’t pay! You are bestowed this honourable stick of frozen liquid as my hundredth and one customer!”
• The Un-Reveal: Even if the reader hasn't seen the original work, Bellwether's antagonism is made apparent to them before it is to the heroes. Bellwether doesn't even get revealed as the Big Bad due to being caught in a lie this time, but by intentionally revealing herself to Nick and Judy just to Evil Gloat for her Near-Villain Victory.
• Villains Want Mercy: Woolter pleads to Judy to help him as Nick bites into shoulder, even though he was part of the plot to turn Nick savage and have Judy and Robin Fed to the Beast. Nonetheless, Judy helps and treats his wounds.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Officer Swinton is presented as this. A Police Pig working in Records that becomes a Whistleblower Wilma for Manchas turning savage, expresses the belief it is too dangerous for the publis should the police keep a possible epidemic of predators going savage a secret while they investigate. In the aftermath of her actions, Chief Bogo admits she had the courtesy to redact Manchas' identifying information from the leaked bloodwork.
• What a Drag: Bellwether tried to hide in her car when the turned-savage Nick turns on her, only to be pulled out By The Wool and thrashed about until her minions get him off of her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?
  • Emmit Otterton is only given an off mention by Nick as Judy explains to him she has Taken Off the Case. While he isn't brought up again, it's a Foregone Conclusion that he was cured along with the other mammals poisoned with night howlers.
  • The exact results of Internal Affairs' investigation into Swinton for leaking a civilian's medical records aren't covered, but Chief Bogo assures Judy that legal action will be taken against her.
  • A literal example, Eugene Smalls is only seen for the one segment where he Caught on Tape Robin's kitnapping.
  • True to the film, Doug Ramses is never stated to face justice for his crimes. His last appearance is when Bellwether calls him to berate him for Jesse getting Caught on Tape and letting Robin's kitnapping become breaking news.
• Wham Line: Several are given, often as The Stinger for chapters.
  • Blowing out smoke, the mob boss intoned simply, “Find Wilde.”
  • Nick (lying) that he's Robin's father.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Zig-Zagged with Beltwether. She has Robin kitnapped so she can lure Judy into a trap where they dart Robin, have him maul her to death, and use the Matricide as a Propaganda Piece. When the kitnapping goes too public for them to go with the initial plan, Bellwether decides to just shoot her dead and play it off as a hostage situation gone wrong. However, when Judy arrives with Nick despite being told to Come Alone, Bellwether ends up Hoist by Her Own Petard when she follows her Sadist desires to have Nick kill both of the Hopps.
• World of No Grandparents: Zig-Zagged for Robin. Initially Downplayed as his maternal grandmother is the only one seen or mentioned (albeit posthumously), but gets Defied once Judy adopts him and Bonnie and Stu become his new grandparents.
• Would Hurt a Child
  • Stu Hopps by proxy. When he sees his daughter in a room with a fox kit that isn't even two months old, he asks Judy if she has the Fox Away he gave her. Judy and even Bonnie do not approve. Eventually, after accepting his new grandson, Stu is remorseful for ever considering such a thing.
  • Bellweather and her cronies. Upon learning about Judy's son, she arranges Jesse to abduct Robin and lure Judy into a trap after turning him savage. When circumstances would make Judy's death too suspicious that way, she decides to simply overdose him with tranquilizer and shoot her dead.
• Wrong Side of the Tracks: Happy Town, a neighborhood that had ambitious plans that were never realized. It ends up a decrepit slum for predators that the bus routes avoid and gets the occasional police call to report a shooting.
• Year X: Averted. The date of Mr. Otterton's disappearance is provided as May 6, 2017.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Judy gave an impassioned one to Nick after Mr. Big boxed him into helping her. When Nick started making a Self-Deprecation jab over her having to associate with a fox, Judy interrupted and chewed him out for his cynicism with such determination that it left Nick speechless.
  “That’s not it at all!” The rabbit exclaims, “Also, you shouldn’t talk down about yourself like that! There are enough mammals out there spouting things they know nothing about like it’s the gospel truth. You don’t need to be preaching to the choir and adding your voice to the fight.”
• Your Little Dismissive Diminutive: When Bellwether has Nick and Judy cornered and reveals herself as Robin's kitnapper, she is constantly belittling Judy as she explains The Conspiracy to her and demammalizes Nick as her pet.
• You're Not My Father: Lampshaded. Judy considers the possibility of this occurring when she informs Robin of her starting to date Nick, admitting its unlikely given their Intergenerational Friendship. Any worries are for naught as Robin readily accepts Nick as his mother's boyfriend and later father.