Content: Petplay

A gentle tap on the door woke April. She looked up and saw her handler, Jada, smiling down at her. It was the most exciting day of the month, race day. Jada walked in and April stood at attention, allowing Jada to attach a leash to her collar.

April was treated well at the stable. Her owner had many different kinds of racers. He dabbled in pony and dog races mostly. April was a new addition to his stable for a new kind of race. It was a fun place filled with people with exotic interests.

They walked past Abby getting her hair brushed. She’d probably be doing her morning exercises soon. April was always impressed by the dog racers. At one point she tried it out but couldn’t stand to be in the binders for any real length of time, let alone try to run in them.

Some might look down at her for the career she chose, but she loved it. The perks were amazing, she got to hang around with a lot of fun people, and got to enjoy competing in a sport that was a bit off the beaten path. She got to enjoy being on the first professionals in this particular “pet” sport and got a lot of attention from it.

Jada did one final check on April’s equipment as she ate a light breakfast. She didn’t like to eat a huge meal the day of a competition. Not with the kind of movements she’d spend all day doing. When they were both done April got to have her pre-competition pampering. Jada helped wash her down, brush her hair, and then gave her a massage to loosen her up. It was a great way to relax before a competition.

The pampering came to an end when Jada got a text letting her know that they had to head off. The competition would start in a few hours and they had to get to the track and April needed to get dressed when they got there. Abby wished her good luck at they left the stables.

Despite the massage, it was hard for April not to be at least a little stressed. Today would determine who would qualify for the larger races. She was the only “rabbit” her owner had. She’d be trying to qualify for the small rabbit racing championship race. There were also the medium and large size classes of both genders. This type of race was new, so the rosters weren’t fully filled out in any of the categories yet. However, the championship would bring in the top three racers of each category from across the country. It would be the first competition where there would be full rosters racing.

Oddly enough, hearing the crowd in good spirits when she got out of the van washed away the anxiety. They might not be cheering for her specifically, but she loved the energy of the crowd. She was ready to go and was the one pulling Jada to the locker rooms.

Her gear was a bit embarrassing, but no more embarrassing than any other pet sport. Dogs wore bitch suits that forced them to run on their elbows and knees. The ponies gear included blinders and weird heels that April couldn’t imagine balancing on. Her gear was not only much easier to use, it was much more comfortable.

Gear for each pet racer was modeled off of the pet they resembled. The standardized outfit was a bunny suit. Everyone got an assigned color and number. April was Blue # 5. That piece wasn’t the embarrassing part. A bunny suit was basically just a swimsuit. It was the ears she found embarrassing to wear. The ears had to be tight on the head, but couldn’t be too tight. If they fell off in the race it was a disqualification. Being careful with them was part of the challenge.

Still, just needing to balance a special ear headband wasn’t a big challenge. The core of the race was in the remaining two pieces of gear. Jada gently pulled her arms back and put them in a box binder. During a race her arms needed to be held back with it. It meant one couldn’t use their arms to balance.

Of course, that wouldn’t matter if you were just walking or running. It was the last piece of equipment that affected your balance. It was a leg binder. It wrapped around the lower leg and locked. It made sure our legs couldn’t part. It forced the racers to hop like rabbits.

When Jada finished dressing April she stood back and gave her some space to do a few practice hops. April stood up, got her balance, and took a few hops across the floor. She couldn’t hop the furthest, but she could do small, quick hops without risking her balance. She had done fairly well this season with this tactic. There were arguments between racers and their owners on whether it was better to do long, powerful hops or if shorter, faster ones were better. April wanted to prove her way was best.

Jada gave her equipment one more lookover before grabbing a wheelchair. Having to hop all the way to the field would be exhausting. This allowed the racers to get dressed in private and get moved to wherever they were needed.

She met up with some of her competition on the journey to the field. The one she knew best was Pink #1, Melody. They had been on the same track team back in college. They had encouraged eachother to give this sport a try. Unfortunately their contracts were bought by different people, but they stayed in contact. It wasn’t like they lived off the grid, they had time to relax and do whatever they wanted when they weren’t training.

April lit up when they reached the field. The crowd was cheering, ready to go. The large class had already done their races this morning. She wanted to watch then, but Jada convinced her it was better to relax and keep her eye on the ball. They’d watch the large class races later.

Part of her was a bit jealous of them. The small class was anyone under 5 foot 5. The medium class was 5 foot 11. Large was anyone above six feet. She saw Cesar, one of the large male racers, hop off the field. She wished she could jump the same distance that he could. She had a feeling his short jumps weren’t much shorter than her long jumps.

It wasn’t long before the track was cleared for her competition to begin. Jada helped her into her starting gate. It was a bit more complicated than the ones for the dogs and horses. The rabbits sat on a special shelf with their feet against a slanted board. It meant that the racers didn’t need to keep their balance while waiting for the race to start. It also gave them something to push off of for the first hop. It was a much more impressive way to start the race.

April took a deep breath as Jada shut the door behind her. Today was a simple 100 meter dash. It was the easiest to do in this gear. The two hundreds were exhausting and she’d lost twice on those when her headband fell off.

This was her day though.

Once the other six racers were in the stalls the announcements began. They announced each of us by name, color, and number. The top three of us would go onto the championship race. Listening to them talk on was almost torture for April. She just wanted to start.

Finally, after what seemed an hour, the announcements ended. She tried to keep calm as the countdown began. When it hit zero and the gates popped open she pushed off the board and started down the track as fast as she could.

She had learned early on not to pay attention to the other racers. It didn’t matter how close they were or if they or they headbands were falling. All that mattered was her, there may as well not be anyone else there with her.

It felt like her heart beat ten times for every hop she made. She could feel the shock of each impact when her feet struck the ground. Towards the end she almost lost her balance. She had gotten greedy and took a longer jump than she should have and almost ate dirt because of it.

But she made it across the finish line. It was hard to stop once you started hopping. Jada was there at the end to stop her momentum and help her sit down. Each of the handlers helped out their respective racer as the crowd cheered. Jada kept her lips tight and pointed to the replay.

The first down was red #4. She landed badly on a jump about 50 meters in and fell. Green #2 was the second out, unfortunately she moved her head too much and lost her headband towards the end.

Instead of announcing the winner, they played a slowmo of the ending. In the last ten meters it was her and Melody neck and neck. The footage went frame by frame and her heart sank a little. Melody barely had the lead. She’d be happy her friend won, but she had been so close.

But then she overtook her. That long jump she thought had been a bad idea had given her a big enough boost and right at the end she overtook Melody.

“Blue #5, April, wins!”

She tried to stand and cheer, forgetting the binder on her legs. She was barely caught by Jada who quickly let her out of the arm and leg binders. She could hear a few people booing her, probably those who had lost their bets, but the crowd was cheering for the most part.

She accepted her prize, a blue ribbon, and held it up in the air with pride. Not only had she finally won first place, but both her and her friend would be heading to the championship.