Judy Hopps had never realized how fortunate she was when she was first born. She never realized, when she was barely a toddler gandering up at her mother and father who amused her with a carrot-shaped rattle, that she was one of the more fortunate species of animals. She had the life of luxury and she enjoyed it to the fullest in her first few years of life with no thought of the difference between prey and predator.

Her whole world was the farm her parents owned and nothing beyond that concerned her young head. She lived a careless life, and the only thing she had to worry about at night was falling asleep. Her ignorance to the world outside of her family's farm did not last for very long, but in the years that it did Judy Hopps did not know what her fate would be. The small, bright-eyed bunny would never imagine that the outside world would ever throw a monkey wrench into her plans of becoming a farmer just like her parents, and her parents would never have suspected that she would leave their farm. Judy's parents soon learned that when their eldest daughter had a goal to accomplish, there was no stopping her from accomplishing it. Once her mind was set on becoming a cop, there was nothing they could do to throw her off the path of her dream.

The first steps that Judy Hopps took as she got off her train were breathtaking for her. Ever since she was a young bunny, she had wanted to become a part of the Zootopia Police Force, and here she was, living out that dream. Her parents had begged her to stop and to stay with them and her nearly three hundred siblings, but this was something she had to do for herself. Judy had a reason to become a cop, she'd found it at a young age, and now she was here, walking through the streets of Zootopia to get to her apartment.

Judy looked up at the small apartment building that stood in front of her. She waited patiently for the landlord, who was supposed to be waiting around for her to arrive. Judy neatly held her luggage in front of her, which consisted of two small suitcases. She turned her head when from the corner of her bright, purple eye, she caught the outline of an armadillo.

"Judy Hopps, right?" there was an unamused look on the armadillo's face, two judging eyes behind her glasses.

"That would be me." Judy said, not caring for her attitude but stopping herself from being snappy back. Her landlord stared for a moment and then turned. The rabbit was lead up a short flight of stairs to the doors of the apartment building.

"These are your keys for unlocking the front door and your own door."

Judy looked down at the small key ring in-between her paws as she was lead down the hall. She glanced up and began to unlock the door when she heard the voice of the landlord a few moments later.

"So you're a police officer?"

Judy unlocked the door, and turned her head. She knew that it was big news, and the mayor had been there to congratulate her, but she hadn't thought many people in the city would know about it.

"Yeah. Graduated top of my class."

The rabbit wasn't one for boasting, but she felt proud of herself enough to say it.

"So are you one of those no collar activists?"

Judy felt herself freeze up at the unexpected topic-changing question. She suddenly felt herself become nervous as she turned, and seeing the tiny eyes of the landlord watching her over her shoulder only made her feel worse. Judy didn't want to lie, so she was only honest.

"No. Predators should always have to wear collars. I mean, they're dangerous. I know not all of them can be bad but with my luck, I'll always run into the bad ones."

The landlord nodded at her words. Judy swore she could see a small smile cross her face, as if she approved of what the short rabbit was saying. After that, she disappeared back down the hallway and left Judy to her apartment.

The grey-furred rabbit locked the door behind her upon entering and placed down her suitcases, taking in the small view of her humble abode. In one leap she threw herself backwards onto her bed. Her purple eyes watched the ceiling as she felt perfectly content, stretching out her arms.

Even many years later Judy did not fully appreciate how lucky she was to have been born a prey instead of a predator.

A few hours later Judy could hardly wait to start her job in the morning. She was laying in her bed, watching the news and hugging onto her pillow.

"Today, a predator has been taken into custody. Not enough info has been released so we don't know how this happened, but apparently he had escaped from his collar and was on the loose downtown. He was tazed and captured shortly after by the ZPD. We interviewed some bystanders, and this is what they had to say."

The screen darkened a little, then lit up again. A microphone was being held to the mouth of a camel, who looked at whoever he was being interviewed by.

"I was jogging along and minding my own business when I see this vicious creature race past me. He nearly knocked me off my feet, the brute!"

The screen flashed again to an elephant, a younger one next to her.

"My brother and I saw the wolf and were horrified that he had no collar on. There needs to be new security on collars everywhere, because I mean, what if that guy had hurt my brother? He was smiling like a psycho!"

The screen switched again. Judy was surprised to see a predator being interviewed, and her heart rose in her throat a little to see it was a fox. If there was any predator Judy couldn't stand, it was foxes. They were sneaky, mean and not trustworthy at all. She just frowned, staring at the screen.

The fox didn't say anything for a moment as he adjusted the tie he was wearing. He looked into the camera, shrugging.

"It looked like he was having fun to me."

Judy felt disturbed by this answer as the news cast came back on. Judy didn't want to be. . . one of those rabbits, but when something scary happens, like a collarless wolf being on the loose, it might be a good idea, at least in her opinion, to avoid interviewing another predator.

She reached for the remote and shut the news off, curling up in her blanket. It was going to be a long first day in the morning.

To be honest, I had different plans for how I would start chapter one. I feel like this chapter is extremely rushed but I really wanted to get started on a story.

I got the idea after digging up some info on what Zootopia was originally going to be like. All the predators were supposed to wear collars and were feared very much by the public, so I couldn't just sit by and not write a story about that!