Topher the Therapy Dog (Patreon)

patron 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