Posted on 07/04/2012 11:03:47 AM PDT by Stoat
Sophia, 11, has been living with her pet lynx since her mum and dad brought it back from an animal sanctuary as a cub four years ago.
She helped bottle feed the wildcat — named Zen — and has developed such a close bond with the animal he lets her dress him up, play games and even sleeps on her bed
Pavel Nikulochkin and his wife Svetlana, from Kaluga, Russia, always dreamt of owning a lynx as a pet and consulted animal experts to find ways of realising their dream.
After being told their tiny flat wasn’t big enough for the animal to live in, they saved up to buy a house.
In Russia it is not illegal to keep a lynx as a pet. And it is not uncommon for the wildcats — who can weigh up to 30kg and hunt birds, fish ad rabbits in the wild — to become house-trained.
Sophia and her family found Zen recuperating in a rescue centre after he was abandoned by his mum. She was part of a troupe of exotic animals being dragged around Russia in a travelling circus.
Pavel, 43, said: “After three years getting everything sorted we eventually met Zen — a small fluffy red-haired ball rumbling with his brothers and sisters hissing away.
“He couldn’t feed himself at this age so when we got him home we fed him with cat’s milk substitute, little by little adding some meat.
The cat — with his distinctive pointed ears and large “snowboot” paws — has settled in well with the family’s other animals.
“We already had pet cats living at home so they took care of the new ’kitten’ even though he looked different.
“Even now he still thinks the other cats are in charge and obeys them.”
“He’s very funny — he purrs exactly like a cat but obeys to our commands like a dog so we often call him CatDog.
“Zen loves children and allows them to do almost anything but at the same time understands who are guests and who are strangers — he’s definitely the best guard-CatDog you could wish for.”
Sofia added: “Zen is like my best friend and is very gentle with me. We play all the time but he never seems to get tired.
“Even though he has got bigger he still acts like when he was small.”
There’s a cat that would make my German Shepherd pause and think.
Look at the size of those paws! He’s going to be a VERY BIG CAT, someday soon. This (probably) isn’t going to end well, and I have always had cats, but if they were that big, they’d kill me and eat me instead of waiting for me to feed them! LOL!
/johnny
Someday this matchup is going to generate another headline of a less pleasant sort.
The lynx is a wild animal with wild instincts. It may be okay now but this isn’t going to turn out well.
Katzenjammer Kid...
A dangerous wild animal and an eleven year old. What could possibly go wrong?
Lovely child and a beautiful cat. I hope it all works out well for them.
I’d hate to have to clean THAT litterbox!
/johnny
It may be ok...they are not lions, but still predators.
The trick is to have a large dog to gather the 'tootsie rolls'.
/johnny
It’s utterly beautiful but those paws! Gigantic! Hope it’s declawed.
I’ve got an 18 pound Orange Tabby that makes me wonder if I don’t have a family of illegals hiding in the crawlspace and using the cat box at night.
I’ve seen smaller cowpies!
At least the lynx instinctively covers its scat like domestic cats. African servals, which are very popular nowadays, do not naturally try to cover their scat making them difficult to house train.
A lynx isn’t that dangerous. This one seems to have grown to full size, don’t let the paw size fool you. They take birds and animals of rabbit size or a little bigger in the wild, but anything human-sized is generally too big. Timid critters unless cornered.
Wow. Big cat.
Appears to be about the size of my black Maine Coon, 28 pounds.
This morning, my wife told me the cat was filthy and we needed to give him a bath.
I’m nursing at least a half dozen wounds from the bathing ordeal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.