Art by thera

Kara heaved a long, loud sigh. She hadn't had anyone to really compete against for a while now. They either turned her down because she was so short and they claim they might crush her on accident, or they found they didn't like losing to a shrimp like her and refused to compete with her again. But Kara loved to race, wrestle, play sports, anything that was competitive.

As she heaved another sigh, an effeminate cheetah wearing striped stockings and a miniskirt was passing by. "Sweetie, what has you so down in the dumps?"

Kara glanced up, and upon seeing the cheetah, she perked up. Who better to compete against in a race than a cheetah?! "You like to race?" She blurted out.

"Really? Why does everyone always ask me that," he whined. "Alright, if it'll cheer you up, I'll race ya. Let me go get changed into my fitness outfit." The cheetah trotted off.

Upon returning the cheetah introduced himself. "I'm Zeke by the way. Now let's be all sportsman like and stuff, okay? How 'bout a lap around the park?"

Kara nodded her head. "Sounds fair. On your marks..." They both get into position, "get set..." they both tense all of their energy into their legs, "GO!!!" Kara blasts off and finds she easily takes the lead against Zeke. "Heh, for a cheetah, he's not so fast."

As Kara rounds the first bend around the park, she peeks back and sees that he is jogging along at a nice steady pace, not terribly far behind her but not close enough to pose any immediate threat to her lead. "Man, I thought all cheetahs were fast. Guess not." Kara continues to push herself and go at full speed.

As she rounds the final bend, she finds her energy running out and her muscles on fire. "Not huff huff much huff huff further." She looks back and sees Zeke is still a good ways behind her. She smirks and thinks to herself, "Never thought I'd beat a cheetah."

But just then, Zeke breezes right on by her as if she were in slow motion, leaving her in shock. She thought to herself, What just happened? I thought I had a big lead?" Kara crosses the finish line, completely out of breath and perplexed as to how she was so suddenly beaten when he had been trailing so far behind her.

Zeke finishes panting, then turns to the perplexed corgi. "Sweetie, wanna know my secret?" Kara nodded her head. "Girl, cheetahs can run fast for sure, but only over short distances or we tire ourselves out. So I just took things easy until the last stretch." Zeke stretched out his thighs. "That was fun. Much better than just running on the treadmill to keep in shape. Wanna meet here every morning and do it again?"

Kara nods her head, grinning. "I'll look forward to it!"