The Petting Zoo (911) (Patreon)

This was a story commission for one of the top tier patrons - hope you all enjoy! It is based on the series 911.

Being a firefighter in Los Angeles took Buck to far more places than he’d ever have expected. For example, he’d never expected to be answering a call in a petting zoo of all places but there he was, hoping that he wouldn’t be ending his day smelling like farm animal. That stench never seemed to come out as quickly as he hoped. He didn’t even have his best friend Eddie out on the call with him to help lighten the mood at all, instead all he had was the smell, a crowd of annoying children running around his legs and a newbie to the station who was way too obnoxious and self-centered whenever they stumbled into conversation.

It was work shifts like that which really tested Buck’s patience with his job. He knew there was nothing that he’d rather be doing and the threat of having it taken away from him with some recent work troubles had certainly made him more appreciative of it in general but that didn’t mean there weren’t times when he’d rather be kicking back in bed or downing beers with Eddie at a bar somewhere. 

Thankfully it hadn’t taken long for the two firefighters to sort out the issue that had been called in and they were heading back towards their vehicle when Buck realized that his detour had actually taken them the wrong way and they’d ended up outside of the donkey enclosure. There was one standing right up near the fence looking rather fed up and Buck couldn’t help but chuckle as it locked eyes with him. “Yeah, me too, dude,” he murmured, reaching a hand over the fence to stroke the donkey’s head - when its teeth closed around his palm for a moment!

Snatching his hand away with a yelp of pain, Buck was glad to see that it at least had only barely broken the skin in a small place but his hand was slobbered with the animal’s saliva and that was somehow even worse. “Fuckin’ rude,” he grunted, scowling across at the donkey who seemed as unbothered as he had previously. The firefighter wiped the saliva off onto his jacket but as he began to start walking again he found that he had somehow crossed the fence and was now standing inside the donkey enclosure, rather than on the path outside as he was certain he had been before.

What the actual hell? Buck thought, reaching up his bitten hand towards the fence in order to vault up and over it. As he did so though, he was stunned to find his fingers were all stuck together and the lines between them were beginning to fade away, the individual digits on his hand blending into one. Even his thumb had been pulled into the mix! Buck was completely rooted to the spot as he stared at his hand in confusion - confusion that soon blossomed further into horror as he raised his other hand to find that the exact same thing was happening to it too. I must be more tired than I thought, he told himself, but even after rubbing his eyes, his hands continued to change further: his flesh hardening and the pale colour turning darker, almost black. Soon there was no denying what they were: I have goddamn hooves!

Even as the panic began to consume Buck, his body gave a lurch and he fell forward until he was on all fours. A quick inspection of his lower half revealed that his boots and socks had vanished and that his feet were beginning the same transformation that his hands had undergone, reshaping into a donkey’s hooves. “Oh hell-HAWWWW!” His attempt to curse had been interrupted by an impulsive need to bray like a donkey, and another shockwave of fear rippled through the firefighter.

Watching as thick brown hair began to sprout up his forearms, Buck’s panic only increased. He looked up and around for any sight of the newbie who only minutes ago he’d wished would leave him alone, but he was already much further down the path and seemingly unaware that Buck was no longer in his company. “Hel-HAWWWW!” he cried out, once again braying before he could finish speaking. 

He was mortified and yet there was little he could do as the clothes vanished from his torso and he was exposed to the hair growing in all over his upper arms, shoulders and chest. A prickling sensation on his back confirmed that much the same was happening there too, and a fierce burn across his muscles alerted him to the the physical reshaping of his body. His arms and legs lost all of their muscularity, instead becoming thin and short, keeping him lower to the ground, while his rear end became much rounder and firmer. His back legs also developed a hock, the very bones shifting angles to support the increased weight of his back half. 

A sharp pain just above his ass promised even more changes for Buck and even though he had no sight of it happening, he could tell that a tail was beginning to sprout from his rear end and dangle down towards the ground.

“Hee-haw!” Buck wheezed in his last attempt to speak as the prickling sensations moved to his face and the lower part of his skull and jaw began to elongate, forming a muzzle. It was an uncomfortable sensation but there was more than that to focus on as his ears moved to a higher position on his head and began to grow in size, standing taller above his head while his blond hair darkened to become a black mane running down his back alongside his grey-brown fur. His distinctive blue eyes darkened to a deep brown as the changes to his skull finished and with it the last clues towards his humanity vanished altogether.

Within a case of minutes absolutely nobody, not even Eddie or his own family, would have recognized the donkey as Evan Buckley. He was just another donkey in the petting zoo enclosure, vaguely aware of his human identity but unable to communicate it to the world around him. With little more to do than munch on grass and wait for more visitors to come along and pay him some attention, Buck let out a sad whine and settled down on the ground. It was going to be a long life...