Pets in the Ring

It was shaping up to be a pretty uneventful day at the Littlest Pet Shop, that was until the arrival of a kangaroo joey named Red. The pets welcomed Red to the play area of the shop and he immediately took a liking to the punching bag hanging from a decorative tree branch. The pets were quick to outfit Red in some green boxing gloves and ushered him to show them his best punches. His skills were lackluster to say the least and often ended up missing his mark entirely or allowing the bag to knock him flat on his back.

He explained to the pets that it was his dream to become the best boxing kangaroo ever, but he never really got the hang of the whole boxing thing. The pets offered to help him in any way they can, which led to them putting on a really convincing training montage. Red hopped in laps around the room, chased after Vinnie while he did some evasive dance moves, practiced his punching on pillows thrown by the pets, and doing all manner of physical exercise to build up his strength.

All this was not enough however, Red told the pets that he needed a real opponent to practice his new skills on. The pets would be able to find him an adversary to step into the ring with, and they would find it in the most unlikely pet of them all, "You want me to fight Red?" Penny Ling was standing dumbfounded in front of a nodding Russel, who had asked her to be Red first real opponent, "But why me? I'm not that strong." she said.

"Well, you are a panda." Russell reminded her.

"I don't really want to hurt him or let him hurt me for that matter." Penny said.

"It's not like you will actually have to hurt him, it's just for him to practice." Russell said.

"I'm just not sure." Penny said.

"Come on Penny, Red's our new friend. He really wants to prove himself as the greatest boxing kangaroo who has ever lived. You don't want to let him down do you?"" Russell asked. Penny Ling looked down at her feet nervously. She didn't really like the idea having to fight a new friend, but if it meant helping them in the long run, that is what she would at least try to do. She begrudgingly nodded her head

"Ok, I'll do it." she said.

"Red is going to be really appreciative of this Penny. He is certainly going to owe you." Russell said.

"It's always a pleasure to help out a friend. Besides, it can't be that bad right?" Penny wondered. On the panda's part, she shouldn't have thought about it too much. She imagined herself knocked out in the ring, hurting all over, stars obscuring her vision, "I hope..."


That evening, it was time for the match to start. The pets managed to construct a small boxing ring for the event. Zoe shined a flashlight on Minka as she stood in the middle of the ring wearing a bowtie and carrying a toy microphone, "Good evening everyone! Welcome to the Ultimate Pet Smackdown! In the left corner, born and raised in his Momma's pouch, will his species' natural fighting instinct help him achieve victory? Introducing, Red!" The monkey pointed at one of the corners where Red was currently standing dressed only in his green boxing gloves, raising his arms high and throwing some air punches. He was absolutely pumped.

"In the right corner, hailing from the beautiful country of China, a sweet little thing with strength for days! It's Penny Ling!" She then pointed to the opposite corner the ring where Penny was, wearing a pair of red boxing gloves that wore when she tried being tough. She looked nervously at Red who waved at her with a smile on his face, which she sheepishly returned.

"The things I do for friends." she thought as Minka hopped out of the ring and Pepper took her place, who had volunteered to be the referee for the match. She was wearing a striped shirt and whistle. The skunk waved the two contenders to the center of the ring and relayed the rules.

"All right you two, I want a clean fight here. No biting, shoving, pushing, kicking, punching... oh wait this is a boxing match, of course there's punching!" Pepper said as she laughed at her own joke while Penny and Red bumped gloves.

"Uh, you better be ready to take a trip to Hurtsville, cause that's where you're going." she said, causing Pepper to facepalm at her friend's poor attempt at smack talk.

"Oh yeah, well when you get a taste of my glove... then you're gonna want more?" Red said, resulting in another facepalm from Pepper.

"Just go back to your corners. When you hear the bell come out fighting." she told them. Both fighters went back to their corners. Vinnie was giving Red a pep talk while Penny was getting a massage from Russell, although it did little to help.

"I'm really having second thoughts about this." Penny said.

"Just relax, all you have to do is wait it out the fight until he gets tired. Maybe throw a few punches his way just to make it interesting." Russell said. It was then time for the match to start, with Zoe ringing a bell with a mallet. Penny nervously walked to meet Red in the center of the ring, her knees knocked together and had a scared look on her face. She hadn't felt this insecure since she tried being tough by punching a sandbag, that poor innocent sandbag, what did it ever do the one punching it? Nothing of course, but that just makes it worse.

Little did she know, she wasn't the only one who was nervous in this ring. Red was visibly trembling, with a mixture of excitement and fear, this was his first match against a real opponent, and he was definitely nervous. Were his moves even good enough to beat Penny? Pandas are supposed be tough right? What moves could they even do and what would his moves even do to her?

Both opponents stared at each other as they circled around with their gloves raised, waiting for the other to make a move. Penny Ling was contemplating on whether or not she should hit first and how hard she should hit Red. Meanwhile, Red was trying to figure out whether it was wise to go for the belly or the head first.

"Well, here I go!" they both thought as they started throwing punches rapidly at each other, putting everything they got into it. All of it with their eyes closed.

"I'm so sorry!" Penny shouted.

"You're gonna be!" Red shot back. To them it may have seemed they were brutally beating their adversary, when in reality they were only punching air, the air only a few feet in front of them.

"Come on guys! Put in a little effort!" Pepper said. Both fighters stopped punching and opened their eyes, giving each other knowing nods. They inched closer to each other and wound their fists back in preparation for the first punch. They threw their fists forward and the punches connected, Penny hitting Red's head and Red hitting Penny in the belly. Red staggered backwards in a dizzy fashion while holding his head while Penny rubbed her belly while swaying side to side.

"Is it nap time yet?" Red said dazedly.

"Why do they go for the belly?" Penny complained. This event culminated in a collective face palm from the other pets. This was only the start however, as they soon found this to be the most painfully pathetic boxing match they have ever witnessed. Red and Penny were both hopeless as they struggled to make the fight look convincing. Red tried utilizing his new skills, only to either miss his mark by a wide margin or get tangled up in the ropes, very rarely hitting Penny. Penny on the other hand was constantly tripping up when throwing a punch or profusely apologizing to Red whenever she miraculously managed to hit him.

As for how they took the odd hits now and then, it was not good at all. They often found themselves stumbling and swaying with each hit, constantly seeing stars float around their heads. This went on for a good few hours before the fight's anticlimactic end. Both pets were standing in the middle of the ring, swaying slowly, their eyes lidded, and gloves weakly raised. It was obvious that the next punch they threw would be the last, "Alright guys, make this one count." Pepper said.

Weakly raising their gloves, both Penny Ling and Red wound up for the last punch. Their arms came down and they each punched each other in the chin, sending their heads looking up to the ceiling. That was it for them, they landed with a thud onto the floor of the ring. Their eyes were spinning, stars circled their heads, bellies rising and falling with their steady breathing. Pepper got into the ring and half-heartedly raised the arms of both knocked out pets.

"And the judge's decision is... a tie." Pepper said as she let the arms drop and along with the rest of the pets, left the two of them in the ring. They made plans to let them watch a real boxing match first to see how the big boys do it.