Maybe it was hormones, maybe sugar levels or some other sort of biological fault. Maybe it was divine punishment, or fate of another variety. The fact of the matter was there was a hole in Jennifer that more often then not couldn't be filled, no matter how many burgers she crammed down her throat. This wasn't any particular fault of the burgers, no the greasy little treats did their job well enough, rather Jenny's wallet was the one to blame for this short coming. She simply didn't have enough money to gorge until she was feeling full. And the few times in her life she'd been able to fill herself to the brim? She hadn't been able to see over her stomach, let alone reach past it.

It was a few days until Christmas and Jenny sat perched on the edge of her couch. Well, her stomach was perched at least, hanging well over it and causing the once rather expensive leather couch to buckle in the middle beneath her. She'd broken five of her mother's chairs in the years since she'd been staying with the older jackal and had received no shortage of criticism for it. With her usual disapproving, grumpy little scowl, her mother would say things like 'Jeez, maybe if you weren't too fat to fit in a chair' followed by something like 'you would be able to find a boyfriend', 'you'd be able to fit through doors', 'you'd have a job' or her personal favourite, 'You wouldn't be 23 years old and living at your mother's place. Honestly, it's pathetic'.

Right now she was losing herself in an xbox game. The hippo didn't really like console games that much but she'd broken her computer chair last time she tried to sit down in it and she couldn't afford to replace it – let alone replace it with something that could stand her weight and girth. She couldn't see the monitor past her breasts anyway. Her mother was wandering around the house, collecting her things before she went out.

"Don't forget to pick up the Christmas groceries!" The jackal called to Jennifer, picking up her purse and keys. "Seriously, I know you hate walking in this heat but we've hired the large trolley and I have to visit your sick aunt. I'd walk down and /you/ could visit your aunt, if you were thin enough to fit in a car." The comment was laced with venom to match her disapproving look, but Jenny ignored both. She was well used to her family's brand of 'tough love' by now. She continued playing her game. Satisfied that her daughter wouldn't forget after a jab at her weight like that, Jenny's mother opened the door and padded out. As she did Australia's fierce summer heat pushed its way sluggishly into the house causing a thin film of sweat to appear over Jenny's forehead. Sweat was one of the reasons she missed her fur most, she never used to glisten as much as she did now that she was a hippo. But thankfully her skin seemed designed to expel the heat from her body. Sure she felt like a portable heater, but at least she didn't overheat. At over 800lb of hippo, most of that in her gut, she was thankful for every concession she got. Not that she had anyone to blame but herself.

The clock above the TV read 11AM, Jenny knew that it would get unbearably hot if she waited too long. She'd have to go now, or she'd never make the trip home. Groaning, the hippo switched the game off and slowly rose to her feet. Now, not only did the couch creak but the foundations of the house seemed to groan beneath her. The wooden floorboards, despite what she felt must have been concrete beneath them, seemed determined to whine with her every step. She stretched, feeling the sausage-like sack of flab that were her arms strain to lift their own weight, before tugging back down her blue shirt. It barely covered the uppermost portion of her massive gut but since she refused to wear dresses that could double as circus tents it was the best she had. Her shorts, which she needed help getting into, were still snug about her behind. Perhaps too snug. She'd have to make a note to try and buy a bigger brand. Or maybe find a skirt that would fit her... Jenny's breath began to come to her in shallow waves, as if she were to start panting in the very anticipation of exercise. Maybe she was! Her stomach growled hungrily, reminding her that as always it was a pit awaiting nourishment. She ignored it, it was the reason she was so big in the first place! Steeling herself with what reserve she could muster, Jenny waddled towards the doorway which had been widened since the fifth time she'd gotten wedged in it.

Heat wasn't the only trial of the outside world for a morbidly obese hippopotamus. No, the world was built for smaller people, there was no doubt about it. And smaller people resented a large jiggling boulder taking up their space. As Jenny slowly waddled, already red cheeked and sweating a small river, she took up the entirety of the footpath. Her massive gut sat around her like a jiggling monster truck tire and hung well over even the nature strip beside her. It brushed against fences and, when people didn't get out of the way quite fast enough, other pedestrians. Others would make a show of not getting out of her way, forcing the hippo to detour around them. This would take the better part of a few minutes as when one is over 800lb of flab one starts to value momentum a hell of a lot. It's harder to start up again if you stop and Jenny wasn't looking forward to spending five to ten minutes as a panting heap of flab sitting on the side walk if she lost her energy before she got to the shops.

She'd say the worst part would be the looks that she received, but Jenny would be lying. Worse then the looks and the mutters behind her back, the uttered comments of 'pig' and 'how could she let herself go so much?', was the actual exercise. It was murder! Hell! Fire crept through every part of her body. It snaked around her bones and surged through her muscles, it coated her shifting, jiggling rolls of blubber like oil. She was panting and gasping for breath before she'd made it a few minutes. Thankfully it would only be a few more until she got to the shops, and there was a lovely little ice cream parlour nestled beside the grocery store that she loved to visit. They made the best giant sundaes.

Finally, after hauling her fat, tired ass all the way to the shops, scoffing down the quickest sundae she'd had, Jenny waddled through the doors of the supermarket. Bright red spilled across her cheeks like the sweat that already stained her armpits as nearly every head in the store turned to view the mountain that had entered. One of the shop clerks paled as if she expected Jenny just to start eating everything in sight. In truth, although the idea was mortifying it did have a certain appeal to it. She might even do it, if it wouldn't mean getting locked up or sent to a psychiatric ward. And she very much doubted they had enough food for her in a place like that. After a moment, with an almost apologetic and sheepish look on her face, Jenny waddled up to the nearest store clerk and handed him a piece of paper. It was a receipt for her mother's order. It was the product of a few minutes scurrying around on their part to have a massive trolley loaded up with all the Christmas groceries a family could need if they were feeding ten people. For every day of the week. Which wasn't far from the truth, Jenny's mother was expecting a lot of people to turn up for Christmas, not something the hippo herself was looking forward to. Family reunions always brought about embarrassing questions. And the younger members tended to try and use her as a bouncing castle.

It was a bit of a struggle, but with the help of a blushing shop attendant Jenny managed to grip the handles of the trolley. They bit into her flab something shocking, forcing large portions of her blubber bloated body to spill both over and under the handles and around the trolley, but at least she could guide it out of the store. And so, still blushing, her tail swatting the air behind