lopoddity
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Topher the Therapy Dog
🕑 Added 2024-01-24 01:35:09 +0000 UTCpatron Pitviperofdoom asked if Mal’s gigantism causes her any health or mobility issues. The answer is yes. Mal is around 2-3 times the size of an average leopard, and all that extra mass does put extra strain on her body, particularly her joints. Her knees and hips ache when she exerts herself too much, and her lower back is pretty much always sore. Although she uses daily exercise and stretching to stay fit and limber, she nonetheless has the occasional bad pain day, where her bones ache, her muscles feel stiff and tight, and her head pounds. Part of the reason for her frequent recreational drug use is to help her manage her pain.
Mal is supposed to rest on her bad days, but she’s a behemoth busybody, a jack of all trades with a bajillion jobs and obligations (busking, catering, choreography, music tutoring, coaching youth sports, gardening, painting, teaching assertiveness lessons, making jewelry to sell at craft fairs, etc). Enter Topher, professional punk layabout and unofficial helper hound. Topher has visited Mal’s physical therapist to learn massage and caretaking techniques to alleviate her aches and pains. On Mal’s bad days, he can be found fetching her slippers, making her lunch, running her errands, playing her music, and threatening to tie her to the bed (and not in the fun way) if she keeps insisting on being productive.
edit: some of y’all asked for a height chart for Mal, so here she is compared to a leopard of average height. Ngl I didn’t feel like making up a one-off leopard character, so I borrowed Mustlovefrog’s delightfully disgruntled corporate cog/snow leopard, Valerie. Topher might be tall for a dog, but Mal is still big enough to palm his head like a basketball if she wanted. Size and strength-wise, she’s closer to a lion or tiger than a leopard. A drawing rule of thumb I keep in mind is that Topher comes up to Mal’s boob, Toffee comes up to her shoulder, and Honey oughta just buy a step-stool at this point
Comments
Azure
I'm happily giggling at Mal and Topher because they feel like a nearly comically coincidental accurate description of me and my best friend it's just crazy. Down to our relationship of being absolute soulmates and not needing romance to be a part of it, (except I'm more of a Dom in a way that the only D words I'm looking forward to under the sheets is a Dino) to the point we'd raise kids together if I didn't have a crippling fear of messing it up for the things I've been through, down to the fact my bestie is a tall trans dude that has an actual physical condition that causes him chronic pain and I would absolutely go to the ends of the world to make him comfortable and help him on his bad days. Gosh I love them so goddamn much.
SmilesPerHour
Aw, Mal is such a darling! I have that same obsession with being productive and social 24/7 while my family insists that I relax for a minute, so I sympathize. But I'm glad she has a good partner in Topher to keep her safe and healthy.
Lopoddity
Thank you! Mal's parents adopted her as a baby, and Mal was actually an undersized, teeny infant, so they had no idea what her future would entail. They knew she would outgrow them before puberty, but it hits a point where she's bigger than most adult predators as a teen and they start nervously wondering if this growth is normal. Her mom used to be able to cradle her in one wing, now mom has to be careful not to be sitting on the opposite end of the couch when Mal plops down cuz she's at risk of accidentally getting launched into the sun.
knickknacks
man, the continual shows of trust and care between these two always get to me. Topher being willing to go above and beyond for her even as he's being his annoying smarmy self- guh. they're so good. The ear ponytail is interesting, too- I guess it makes sense that animals with floppier ears might prefer to tie them up and out of the way, just like with hair. Thanks for the size chart, too! It's always fun to see characters lined up next to each other. Though it does make me wonder- were Mal's parents aware of her gigantism when they adopted her? Or is it something that didn't become apparent until she really started growing?
