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Chapter 11

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Each new day of the documentation began with the animals that hadn’t been documented yet returning to Trophy Point, although in most cases, they just walked at their own pace.  Some still marched with their instruments, even if they weren’t playing them.

In most cases, the one being documented was dismissed immediately to return to their regular lives.  Any who stuck around did so mainly for the musical performances accompanying the documentation, such as the opera singers.

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226. Today’s first documented animal was a chocolate lab currently serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.  He had written a letter to Super C previously explaining his situation (which we are not repeating here), and now he was meeting the Cat of Steel in person.

Although his wasn’t quite on the operatic level of the lions and tigers, the chocolate lab could still sing very well, and so he sang the national anthem for us to begin our day, instead of just having the band play it.  He proudly gave the military salute while singing.

Then the band launched into a rendition of “76 Trombones,” although it wasn’t the exact arrangement from one of the Broadway shows or the movie versions, but instead one that incorporated Sousa marches such as “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”  When the dog walked away from the stage, he still sang the lyrics to himself.  Then he found himself whistling other patriotic tunes to keep him in happy spirits (i.e. “Yankee Doodle”).

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227. We then had four raccoon percussionists in green drum major uniforms with silver highlights; one had white pants while the others had the green pants to match.  Three had a traditional shako, while the fourth had a green fuzzy hat modeled after the black ones worn by English royal guards.

228. Fifteen raccoon percussionists wearing purple drum major uniforms with silver highlights.  One of them, playing a bass drum, experimented with wearing a purple top hat with a silver stripe across the bottom.  (He also wore glasses.)

All nineteen raccoons had been drumming along to the rendition of “76 Trombones” while standing in a single-file line, and all of them also exchanged salutes with Corps Coon.  “I think we found some more of your disciples,” I joked.

“You could say that,” said Corps Coon with a big smile.

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Again, this list only covers U.S. citizens and soldiers, but we were getting updates from other C.I.D.F. soldiers around the globe.  They were also seeing the same patterns, where there were more military and/or musicians than other groups.  For example, there were six Scottish terriers from Scotland, all once humans, that were part of a pipe and drum band. Two were drummers while four played the bagpipes, and all six of them wore the appropriate Scottish clothing, such as the kilt.

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229. Back here, we began to see animals in patriotic drum major uniforms for the first time.  What do I mean by that, you ask?  Quite simply, a patriotic uniform used any combination of red, white, and blue, even if it was not necessarily based on Old Glory, so we didn’t bother with the exact descriptions when writing this list.   The highlights were still either gold or silver, though.  In this first case, we had four Bengal tiger percussionists, and their drums were decorated with the flag motif.  Two had silver highlights while two had gold highlights.

230. Then we had two lion percussionists using the same patriotic basis for their drum major uniforms.  One of them even used the stripes on the flag as the basis for the pants he wore.  “If we didn’t know better,” we joked, “we’d swear you were Leo the Patriotic Lion.”

“I get that a lot,” the lion said, “but I don’t mind.  And you don’t know how happy I was to discover that it was Leo that won the Presidency in 2020, and not one of the two it could have been.”

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231. A red fox currently serving in the U.S. Air Force; he was also a percussionist.  He wore the formal blue dress uniform.  He was today’s drummer of honor, but we waited until now to document him because we were going in a specific order based on the order of transformations that CNG had done.

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232. Four golden retrievers dressed as Uncle Sam.  Their jobs varied, but in their youth, they liked to dress up patriotically when it came to Halloween.  “This is just our way of fancy dress,” they said.

“Nothing wrong with that,” we replied.  “What’s not to love about Uncle Sam?”

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233. Two more raccoon percussionists in purple drum major uniforms with silver highlights.  They each had a diamond as the logo, and a silver plume.

234. Seven red foxes in blue drum major uniforms playing the trumpet, one of which ended up half-naked at first.  He had silver highlights on his uniform, while the others had golden highlights on theirs.  One had a red sash going down diagonally, while another had a white one.  “That was just part of the design,” they said.

235. Two gray wolves in purple drum major uniforms with golden highlights; they were percussionists.

236. Three more gray wolf percussionists in black drum major uniforms; one had silver highlights while the other two had gold highlights (although one did not have epaulettes on his uniform).  Each one had blue pants instead of the black ones to match, and the one with no epaulettes had two connected eighth notes just under his right shoulder on the jacket.

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237. Two white wolves in gray business suits and ties; these wolves had executive corporate jobs as chocolate taste testers, although they also helped in other areas of the companies.  “Any particular favorites?” we asked as we learned about their jobs.

“I think I prefer white chocolate,” said one wolf, “but it is amazing how many different variations of that you can have.  I sometimes worry, but the company takes extreme measures to ensure it is always safe for me to taste test it.”

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238. Seven more gray wolf percussionists wearing black drum major uniforms with silver highlights, a black plume on the shako, and the first letter of their names as the logo.  One of them was selected to be the spokesman (or spokeswolf, I guess) for the sister company to “Uniforms ‘R’ Us,” Tremolo Drum Company.  “Was that a big deal for you?” we asked.

“It was a great honor, yes,” the wolf replied.  “These are some of the highest quality drums out there that you can actually afford if you’ve got the money for it.”

The seven wolves also liked playing their instruments in nature, although they were respectful to it by refraining from playing at times.

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239. Four more gray wolf percussionists that also enjoyed playing their drums in nature; three had gold highlights, while the fourth had silver highlights.  One of them had a plume that was half-white, half-green.  “I couldn’t decide which one I liked better, so I tried it with both,” he said, trying not to blush.  (Some teased him about it.)

“Hey; you move to your own beat,” we replied.  “That’s what it’s all about.”

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240. Two otters wearing blue military-style drum major uniforms with gold highlights, decorations, and a peaked cap.  They didn’t know about their powers until too late, so they found ways to play their concert snare drums in the parade.  After we showed them how they worked, they then switched over to military field drums and tried a few cadences.  “Oh, yes; this works much better,” they said.

241. A bloodhound in a green drum major uniform with a combination of gold and silver highlights.  His shako didn’t have a plume, but it had a gold stripe on the top and bottom edges, and a silver logo matching the Air Force logo.  He was a percussionist as well, but he was already playing a corps-style field drum in the parade.

“Did you have any relatives in the Air Force?” we asked.

“I had a few,” he said.  “One of them said he knew both Super Leo and the man who became the Lion of Liberty from his time in the force.  He hasn’t seen either one for years.”

“Keep in touch with us, and we can arrange the reunion for you.”

“Oh, yes; thank you so much.”

“Our pleasure.”

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242. The next four bloodhounds were all jazz drummers; they wore the formal business suit and tie.  One had to wear glasses, though.  “I tried contact lenses, but the lenses didn’t like me,” he said.  “They were always falling out.  Thankfully I never stepped on them.”

“Oh, yes,” I said.  “We can’t have anybody stepping on broken glass.”

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243. Two lions dressed casually in t-shirts and blue jeans, since they were on vacation.  They worked at a recycling plant.

244. Two more lions in t-shirts and blue jeans, also on vacation.  They were factory workers. “Not at the same one, though,” the first lion clarified.  “I actually work at a cereal plant.”

“And my plant distributes organic cookies, crackers, and that sort of thing,” said the second lion.  “Snack foods, and some other foods as well.  But it’s all 100% organic.”

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245. Eight golden retrievers in t-shirt and blue jeans, also on vacation.  The first four lived along the beach, and had part-time jobs as lifeguards, although they were necessarily intending to do that full-time.  The other four worked at various stores inside shopping malls.  The fourth one commented about how he felt his days were numbered, since there were dead malls in the country.  “Yet when Leo was elected, I saw sales were boosting at my store,” he said.  “Mind you our store does allow for online shopping, but still, I thought, ‘I figured in-person shopping was going dead, not online shopping.’  Shows what I know.”

“That’s another part of CNG’s doing,” Super C replied.  “In its perfect world, there would be no such thing as the internet.”  In addition, we helped him to understand just how it would have attempted to make Earth a new Kriegland, and yet it got so many things wrong about Kriegland.

“What a depressing fantasy,” said the dog.  “I’m so glad the real Leo is nothing like that.”

“So are we.”

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246. At this time, we were finally starting to see some athletes and sports stars in the furry world, now that CNG had turned them from humans to furries.  The first four golden retrievers in his group all drove motorcycles professionally for the furry version of Moto GP.

247. Three bulldogs who played semi-pro baseball.  They were good enough to move up to the major league level, but there was no furry counterpart to MLB, so the other professional leagues kept them instead.  One bulldog was a pitcher while the other two both played shortstop.

248. There was, however, a furry counterpart to the NFL and NBA.  The four buffalo we talked to afterwards, however, had only played football at the college level.  One was a quarterback, one was a wide receiver, one was a kicker, and the last one was the holder for that same kicker.  “What’s your longest field goal?” we asked.

“I’d say about 43 yards,” he said.  “If I’ve had to kick longer than that, I missed.”

249. Two bison who played basketball in college.  They weren’t, however, planning on turning professional; one was instead hoping to go into chemical engineering, while the other one was majoring in sports medicine.  “That way, I can still be involved in sports,” he said, “and I know you Caticonians love basketball.”

“Indeed we do,” said the C.I.D.F. soldier in charge.  “It was our national sport.  We had some of those other ones, too, though; we also had baseball and gridiron football.”

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250. A white wolf in Native American clothing.  He didn’t say what his tribe was; they asked him not to tell.  We promised to respect that for the time being, but told him, “We may eventually have to find out the tribe, in the event any criminals targeting you are going after your tribe.”

“Thank you for letting me keep it anonymous, though,” said the wolf.  “The tribe didn’t want to reveal themselves in the event we had any tabloid terrorists eavesdropping.  I think there are a growing number of them targeting us anthro animals of all types just for the heck of it.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Super C.  “Don’t worry about it, though, okay?”

“Okay.”

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251. Five white lions in Native American clothing.  They also asked to keep their tribes anonymous.

252. Three lions in business suits and ties.  They were all writers for the Wall Street Journal.

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253. Four lions that drove motorcycles for Moto GP.

254. Four bloodhounds serving as construction workers; each one had their clothes and their yellow hardhats to confirm it.  One of them happened to work for the company owned by Zax Arctic, Symmetrical Steel.  “At least I think he still owns it,” he said.  “I know he’s serving on Leo’s administration.  But it’s a great company to work for, believe me.”

255. Two Bengal tigers in a fancy tuxedo with bowtie, although it wasn’t entirely black and white.  There were some orange parts to the jackets as well.  They were simply millionaires.

256. Three coyotes dressed in cowboy clothing; they were residents of Dobson Glen, a sister town to Glenn View Springs, Arizona.  All three had met Nickelback Nathan and his posse as well.  “No kinder cowboy than him,” one coyote said.  “If you want to teach your kids a textbook example of what it means to be a Southern gentleman, introduce them to Nathan.”

“I agree,” Super C replied.  “I’ve known him for a long time, and I’m very thankful for it.  Nathan’s a joy to be around.”

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257. Four lynx that were still in college, and thus, dressed in t-shirts and blue jeans.  All of them were attending NYU, and all of them were majoring in mass communications.

258. Four Bengal tigers serving as construction workers.  All four of them worked for Symmetrical Steel, and all four of them sang the praises of Zax—without trying to give him a big head, of course.

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We’ll give you a break now.  Thanks for your patience, everybody.

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TO BE CONTINUED