The Masculine Mutant Man: Fido

I’m not entirely sure how I got roped into posing for my own project! I much prefer being the one behind the camera. Being the subject for photos, I don’t know, it’s always felt a little surreal to me. Being naked with a hard-on, knowing a bunch of my friends are going to see these? Oh geez, it’s a lot to wrap my head around. But, too many folks wrote in about seeing me in my birthday suited glory so I guess I need to deliver. My fiance Splinter agreed to take the pictures, and he has a good eye for such things… Not that I didn’t still try to coach him nearly every step of the way! I can’t help it. Luckily for me he is an incredibly patient man, even as I’m telling him for the third time to make sure the light is behind him before he snaps a pic. I’ve taken a lot of photos for the project at this point, and honestly, of probably much more fit, confident men. I have the undeniable starts of serious dad bod, especially in the middle. I suppose we all have things we’d like to change about our bodies eh? I’m fit but not exactly ripped. Let’s just say, it’s challenging for me to pose nude the way I am, despite the loving encouragement my partner is offering. Then again, I’ve asked the same thing of so many willing models over the last year, so this seems only fair.

As I’m lying here on my gaudy orange couch straight out of the 70’s, (I love it so much!) with my rat daddy clicking away on my camera, I can’t help but think back to the day when this whole strange journey began over 10 years ago. In those days I was still human of course, and I had just moved back in with my parents after my boyfriend broke up with me. I was so distraught about the whole thing. He was not a great guy, but I thought I was in love, blah blah blah. It’s funny to think that the worst thing that had happened to me at that time was that a jerk broke up with me. I guess I was still pretty naive about some stuff. Anyway, my folks wanted me to get out of the house, get some sunshine and exercise. I grabbed a leash and took our dog Chauncey out for a walk. He was a good old dog, labrador retriever mostly, some mutt. 

As fate would have it, that was the day of the mutagen storm. The sky darkened quickly, an ominous shadow of eerie green swirled around into a roiling thunderstorm. Chauncey barked up at the clouds and I was just thinking about heading home when the first drops started pelting my face and arms. I looked at the water on my bare skin. It was clear mostly, but there was an unsettling faint green glow to it. I brushed it away and took Chauncey under a nearby store awning. The mutation didn’t take long to affect us, or anyone else it came into contact with either. It wasn’t painful. I get asked that a lot, but it didn’t hurt so much as tingled, numbed my whole body. My arms and hands began to sprout tufts of yellow fur, my fingers grew pads at the tips, the seat of my pants tore at the seam as I sprouted a long fluffy tail! At one point I lost consciousness, I suspect because my body was incredibly stressed by the experience. As I drifted off, I remember seeing other people on the street screaming as they went through their own changes. Chauncey was still barking, but the tone of his voice was different, deeper and… more human somehow?

The whole mutation transformation only lasted a couple of minutes. Two minutes and my life was irrevocably changed forever. Well, not just mine, Over five hundred and fifty thousand other New Yorkers (humans and animals) became mutants on that fateful afternoon. The storm dissipated shortly after. We learned later that a group of vigilantes, the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles stopped an alien invasion that was using the storm as a weaponized distraction to open portals to another dimension or something. I know it sounds bananas, but this is New York we’re talking about: Stranger things have happened. And so life began anew for a young gay mutant man living in the Big Apple. Chauncey was mutated too, becoming more human. We look like father and son now, haha. As scientists explained to us later, because he was the last non-human I was in contact with I mutated into a dogman a lot like him, just younger. And vice versa, I was the last non-dog he was in contact with so he became a mandog. Crazy huh? 

Back at home, my parents remained inside the whole time and stayed their normal selves. They were obviously upset like you might expect, but over time everything got back to a sort of normal. We bought another bed and turned my mom’s sewing room into an extra bedroom for Chauncey. He still lives with them actually. He’s still their best friend and good dog but he works at a deli and is dating a nice crow mutant. He’s sort of like a third parent to me I guess since he’s about my folks’ age and helped me get accustomed to the dog side of my life post mutation. In return I’ve been there for him too, helping him navigate human society and seeing him every other weekend. Sometimes we grab a beer and catch up or we’ll just go run around Central Park chasing frisbees.

Geez, sorry I really went off on a tangent there didn’t I? It’s just, important I think to remember where we all came from, and that pretty much anyone in New York and the surrounding area these days has a close friend or member of their family who became a mutant that day. We’re not invisible, and we’re not so different from anyone else, despite how some humans might feel on the subject. I’m still a gay man, but now my cock has a knot near the base and I need to brush my full-body coat at least once a week. My parents’ dog is like my cool uncle. Oh and I’m getting married to the love of my life, a rat, in the Spring. Other than that, what’s really so different? We all want the same things: A happy life, a fulfilling job, friends to spend time with… In most ways I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and I wonder if it isn’t due in some part to the mutagen storm. I have to deal with discrimination, we all do, but it seems to be a little less than when this all began. Slowly I guess people are changing their minds about us. I hope, I truly hope that the Masculine Mutant Man project, as unassuming as it is, helps just one other mutant at least, see that they’re attractive and have value. I started this project with that aim in mind, well, that and getting to meet and take the pictures of a bunch of hunky fellas! But, in getting to know these guys, hearing their stories, I got more out of this than I imagined I would. I’m a mutant too after all, and I’m proud of myself, of my people, and I’m not afraid to show it!

-Fido