Last but not least - the landlord, the hunter, the guardian, his moody majesty Baker. He is our family cat since he appeared at our door 3 years ago. He was surprised why one of his rooms (all rooms in the house are his, obviously), suddenly started featuring a closed door. He wanted his windows back! He spent many hours reclining next to the door waiting for it to open. He had a chance to get in and eat some of Ryzyk's food while Ryzyk was exploring another room with me. Masseeka's loud performance from the condo made him want to leave as soon as possible.

 

After that he mostly lost interest in the room. Him and Ryzyk had a couple of hissy conversations through a slightly opened door, and Sir Baker decided that summer provides much more fun opportunities outside, so why waste time. He always wants to go out if the weather allows, no matter the season. Litterbox? Ha! Those are for pussies, he is too cool for it. Unless it rains. Or snows. Then - yes, he will use it.

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He will not let you touch him as you wish. Nope! Just his head and chin. Or you will regret it. Maybe, just maybe, late evening, when he is ready to sleep, especially near my mom's legs, his majesty will let you pet him on his shoulders or even belly. But watch his tail! Well, actually he may go for a grab and bite even without twitching his tail. So why "The Physical Therapist"?

 

A couple of months before I graduated from the 5th grade, I fell off the bike and broke my right arm right above the elbow. After the cast was removed, I started working with a physical therapist to bring back my range of motion, but the elbow is a stubborn part and the progress was slow. The help came from an unexpected source!

 

A cat started camping in our backyard. No collar, no desire to leave. He would spend all day wandering around, then we would see him go to bed on our outdoor furniture, and in the morning he would pop up from under the deck as soon as the backdoor opened. We asked neighbors, but he didn't belong to anyone within a block or even further. We started giving him some food and water, and, as he looked young and energetic, I started playing with him, mostly with a long string of yarn, so he would chase me around the backyard. He liked this game, so we played a lot. I didn't even realize that I needed to fully extend my arm for that, so when I went to see the physical therapist after a week, he was impressed with the progress, especially compared to the previous weeks. That's how the cat therapist helped me regain full range of motion for my arm!

 

Needless to say we adopted him. He is a big boy, almost 13lbs. Wide nose, relatively small eyes - he looks like a leopard. Why he was a stray? Who knows. He was already fixed. He bravely explored the house when we did let him in. He knew the litterbox. My guess is - some young owner graduated school and left for college, and parents couldn't handle such a moody beast. Or maybe some family moved and left him behind. 

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We live next to the mountains and see quite a bit of wild life here. Rats, mice, voles, you name it. Baker keeps the house safe from those creatures. He regularly brings us "gifts" trying to teach us how to hunt. I bet in his eyes we are hopeless. I wrote a song about him and those gifts. No, it's not AI, it was created in FL Studio with Dreamtonics' Synthesizer V Studio (Liam and HXVOC voices), Shreddage guitars and bass, and EZdrummer 3. Enjoy!