The last things that Molly did at the Community Hall that day were related to paying the fines and posing for the picture that would be taken for Molly's new license. I tagged along as I didn't have much to do now that Molly had finished all of the testing to the DMV operator's specifications. He gave Molly a standard form on which she was to put her address, height, weight, eye color and other things of statistical information that was put on drivers licenses. I stayed out of the way and let Molly fill out the form.
After filling out the form, Molly was lead over to large canvas screen where they were taking the photographs for the licenses. There, we ran into the first real "problem" that we had had with the entire process.
"I'm going to need you to hunch down a bit, ma'am," the photographer there spoke, "My camera won't go up high enough to take your photograph."
Molly crouched down a bit, bending at her legs so to keep her back straight. From there the photograph was taken and we were lead back to the main desk area where the DMV operator had been situated from the beginning. He then presented to Molly the cost of the process.
"Okay, while your temporary license is being processed, we'll go through the standard procedure for paying for the license," he said to Molly and then listed the cost of the license and the mandatory fine that went with not applying for the license within sixty days. He also told Molly who the check was to be made out to, unless she was paying with cash.
Molly wrote out the check and handed it to the DMV operator as an assistant brought her temporary license to him. He then handed it to her.
"Now, Mrs. Wayne, this is only a temporary license and will no longer be valid once your regular license comes in," the DMV operator explained, "You should expect it to arrive at your cabin in about five days."
Molly took the temporary license and placed it carefully in a portion of her purse. The shape of the card showed how "mobility" issues were done in getting these offices set up in areas that were away from Montana's few "big" cities. The card was not laminated and probably wouldn't stand up to any serious attempt at vandalism. I guessed that they weren't sending laminating machines out for these sorts of things, and allowed them carry more of the other supplies needed around the state.
"Thank you again," Molly said to the man.
"It was no problem," the DMV operator gave a short smile, "we've bent half a dozen rules today... but as I said earlier, circumstances have probably demanded it."
Molly and I nodded.
"Now... out of curiosity," the man began, "we can't predict whether or not more people in the area will take the Animatrix Serum to become as large as the two of you... but..."
"You'd like to know if we'll be hearing little paw steps?" Molly asked.
"It is part a larger budget discussion that is going on," he answered, "as we may need to appropriate at least one of those Transits that you own... or something just as large. I doubt you'd want us borrowing your vehicle every time we encounter someone of your height."
"We do have cubs on the way," Molly said with a smile, "I'm in my third month with twins."
"Congratulations," the DMV operator answered, "and thank you. Hopefully when they're old enough to get Learner's Permits, we'll have a vehicle they'll fit into."
"Hopefully," I nodded, "have a good day."
And with that Molly and I headed back outside and toward our Transit.
"So, do you need to go back to the school?" I asked.
"No, I have the afternoon off," Molly answered, "besides, if I go back now, I'd take over for about forty five minutes and then we'd dismiss for the day."
"So, you're done for the day," I commented, "I will, however, need to get back to the station. Would you care to drive me?"
"Me drive you?" Molly asked.
"Well, you just got your license," I replied, "and you said your day is done... wouldn't you like to drive?"
"Well, yes, but..."
"Then go ahead," I answered, "I can walk. And you're not far along enough for the garage door to be a problem for you, even if you were human."
"Thank you, George," Molly said with a smile as I handed the keys to her.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The rest of the day went fairly quietly. Molly dropped me off at the station and continued on her way back home. Nothing much had gone on while I had been supervising Molly's driving tests. We weren't any closer yet to identifying who the thieves were or where they were at the moment. Apparently there were a couple of calls with tips on sightings of the two thieves, but most of the time they'd been sightings of them walking on some street. By the time that an officer arrived in the area, the trail had gone cold and they weren't seen. Once the analysis of the fingerprints came back in, I figured we'd get some help in the case. We'd have a name to add to the believed description of them.
Of course, Officer Barnes had gone to run the afternoon patrol while I was running my "special mission" with Molly. This left me assigned to run a foot patrol for the rest of the day. It limited what calls I could respond to, it would enable me to respond more effectively to some of the small things. Things went quietly on the patrol, and I encountered nothing troubling. Of course, with my mind focused on the latest burglary case that had been thrown at Officer Barnes and I, I found myself moving through areas that we knew the two thieves had to have been. I was mostly hoping to see if I could pick up their scent and track them down. I had no luck.
The day after had also gone quietly. Officer Barnes and I had no major calls to respond to other then ones that would be described as "routine". More tips on our burglars did come in, but as with the ones that had come in earlier, they turned out to be dead ends. One of them actually came from a low scale motel that the two had stayed in. The manager did relatively decent business with people moving through to Canada, Idaho, Washington State, or the rest of Montana during the year and did good business during the summer and early fall when a lot of tourists came through on their way to Glacier. But it was rare that he'd had any trouble and thus rarely checked his security cameras. It appeared that some of the bulletins that had been posted about the actions of these thieves had jogged something in his memory, and it turned own to Black Rats had stayed a night in his motel, but that was before the burglary that Officer Barnes and I had investigated. Nothing that would lead to a capture of the two of them.
As I made my way back to the cabin that Molly and I shared that Wednesday evening, my thoughts were preoccupied by the case involving these two rats. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I barely heard Molly's greeting to me.
"Huh?" I answered, coming out of my thoughts.
"I said are you ready for the Animal Tales episode tonight?" Molly asked, "Tonight is the night they show the Cheetahs in Nebraska and their family."
I slowly nodded in response. That had slipped my mind a bit, as trying to track down these burglars was more important then a television show. But, this particular episode did carry some things that would be potentially important for Molly and I, and that had to do with Molly's pregnancy. We knew Molly would probably give birth after six months, three months premature by human standards. Molly's doctor had never treated a pregnant Animal Person before, and couldn't entirely predict how Molly's pregnancy could go. We had the option of asking Jacki for details regarding her pregnancy, as Lions and Tigers were fairly closely related, but Leon and Jacki had three infants to look after and Molly and I both agreed that we didn't want to pester them with various development related questions when they surely had their paws full. Besides, we did trust Doctor Wainwright's ability as a physician and we didn't want to make it seem like we didn't trust him.
But we were still curious about how things would progress. We wanted to know what our cubs would look like, and Molly had already begun going over a list of names that Megan had given us when Officer Jenkins' transformed daughter became excited at the prospect of Molly and I having cubs. Though, we'd need to know the genders of our cubs in order to begin seriously considering what we would name them, and that was when our "development" questions came in. Because tigers naturally gave "prematurely" in comparison to humans, would that mean that their genders would be obvious sooner then they would in a human pregnancy. Or, would their development mirror the development of a human babies since Molly and I still aged at the same rate as we did before our transformations.
Because this week's Animal Tales episode covered a family of Cheetah people, Molly had figured we'd get some hints at the answer. The two people who took the serum were married adults, but the woman who'd become a female Cheetah became pregnant shortly after transformation. They were now the parents of four Cheetah cubs, and Molly and I hoped the episode would give us some explanation as to what Molly and I could expect as Molly's pregnancy progressed.
"I would suppose so," I answered, "You'll have to forgive me, but I've been thinking about the current case that Officer Barnes and I have been working on."
"The rats?" Molly asked.
"Yes," I nodded.
"You'll get them, George," Molly said confidently, "don't worry. And dinner is ready."
"Let me get changed and I'll be right down," I answered her, and went upstairs to get changed.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I changed and came back downstairs for dinner. Molly and I ate quietly and once we finished, we moved to our living room to watch the coming Animal Tales episode. For the moment, I put the case with the Black Rat thieves behind me and watched as the opening titles, and Wallace Paige's introduction. Once that was over they settled into what was a common looking ranch house. There seated on the couch were two Cheetah people. One was a male which seemed to have rather distinguishing markings. His spots seemed to be much larger then normal and seemed to blend together on his tail. The female looked far more normal when it came to a Cheetah's coloration. A faded yellow fur coat with solid black spots.
"And these are Rowan and Moira MacTaggert from Arthur, Nebraska," Wallace Paige spoke, "thank you so much for agreeing to allowing us to film you."
"It is no trouble at all," Rowan answered, "hopefully we can get the word out on insuring there is proper treatment of Animal People."
"You think they aren't?" Wallace Paige inquired.
"In some cases they aren't," Rowan answered, "A cousin of mine was one of Changes' victims and has faced some of the "persecutions" that were thrown at many of Changes' victims. He is still as he always was with only a few minor differences. Nothing to be hated over. So, when the Animatrix Serum became available to the public, Moira took the Serum to show that Animal People are no different then anyone else in the ways that matter. And so far, I'd think we've done fairly well."
"You did this for your cousin?" Wallace Paige asked.
"Yes," Moira answered, "to show people that we're no different other people in the ways that matter."
"And is your cousin a cheetah too?" Wallace Paige wondered.
"No," Rowan answered, "My cousin didn't get to choose his species... Moira and I settled on Cheetahs as an animal that we've admired."
"Fastest mammal on earth!" Moira said with a smile, "And we loved African Cats."
"Good to hear," Wallace Paige commented, "and I must say Mr. MacTaggert, your coat pattern is very striking..."
"Thank you," Rowan answered, "I'm actually what is called a King Cheetah. It's the result of a recessive gene, actually. It's not a separate species from "normally" spotted Cheetahs."
"I see," Wallace Paige commented, "and I also understand that the two of you have recently welcomed young ones to your family."
"Yes," Moira gave a smile, and motioned down to four baby carriers that were at their feet.
In them were their four cubs. They were small and practically helpless, but I noticed that their eyes were open. But then they didn't look like they were newborns.
"They arrived four months ago and have grown rapidly," Moira answered, and then motioned to each baby carrier, "this is Sita, Marie, Lennox, and Charles."
Each cub gave a cooing chirp as Moira's finger went over the head of each one.
"They've grown up so fast... when they were newborns they were tiny and blind... now... their eyes are open, they're crawling around, and the mantle of hair on the backs of their necks is fairly visible when they move about," Moira continued.
"We expect them to be sprinting at highway speeds in a few years," Rowan joked, "Perfect for herding sheep."
"They're all darling... and hopefully the two of you have many happy years with your children," Wallace Paige congratulated them.
"Thank you," Moira and Rowan answered together.
The rest of the episode largely followed the two Cheetah people around ranch that they owned where they were raising sheep. Most of it appeared to be for wool, not necessarily for eating. They also included tales of chasing Coyotes away from their herds. Though they also adding the comment that the Coyotes they chased seemed more interested in rats and mice living in the pastures and their chasing of second largest wild dog in North America was more of an insurance policy then a dire threat to their sheep. They'd also added that in their years of ranching, the number of sheep that had been killed by Coyotes needed only one hand, and that most of those cased appeared to be more that the sheep had died in a blizzard and the Coyote had been scavenging.
They showed them interacting with the flocks of sheep, which almost seemed not to nice that their owners had become the fastest land animal on earth. Both Rowan and Moira stood fairly tall. Rowan looked like he was about as tall as Molly was and Moira wasn't too much shorter. What made the big difference though was the body plan. When Molly and I had become tigers, we had put on hundreds of pounds of muscle, to give us the anatomical capability to kill animals as large as Bison. Rowan and Moira were much thinner, much leaner. Their bodies built to run at high speeds, which Molly and I would still need our Transit to ever hope of reaching.
The episode ended with Moira sitting with her cubs and feeding one from a bottle while the other three chirped the floor around her climbed toward her lap and the bottle and then climbed back to the floor when one of the other cubs accidentally moved a couple of plastic toys about. One of the four cubs had a "King Cheetah" pattern similar to its fathers, though I couldn't remember which one of the cubs that one was. They didn't discuss Moira's and Rowan's mating, but she did talk a little about her pregnancy. She'd said that it was short, but added that it was nothing short of magical. Her only supposed complaint had to deal with waiting four months to learn the genders, and then gave a short smirk saying that she had been rather excited and impatient to meet her cubs.
"So... if their situation can be "copied" to ours... I'd say we have about two months before learning the gender of our little ones," I commented.
"So it would seem," Molly shrugged, "but one thing is the same between us..."
"Oh..."
"I can't wait to be able to say hello to them," Molly said with a smiled.
I smiled back and gave her a soft nuzzle.