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.”
Jerry Clower, souped up wildcat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AX9QoFhEhI
ping...
MEOW!
I agree, right up there with "pet" chimps and lions. We'll read about the coming attack here on FR someday.
Bathing a cat is hard. Bathing a monster long haired cat is near impossible. I had one cat that would just go limp under the faucet water, though. It was easy to shampoo her.
You're doing it wrong.
If done correctly you won't have any wounds.
OTOH, it will take you days to get all the fur off your tongue.
Maybe they put it out to do its business.
The lynx is cute. It is also a wild animal.
This will likely not end well.
Well, why don’t they make a sponge or gadget that simulates cat tongue cleaning? It’s hard to blame the cat for not wanting to do it humans’ way, any more than humans would tolerate doing it cats’ way.
Don’t know if it’s good or bad to have as a housepet but on the plus side I imagine a boy might think twice before messing with her in a few years when a Cat that big gets in the way!
Is he allowed to run without a leash outside?
Something like this, only bigger.
You don’t know the meaning of fun until you try to give eyedrops to a big mean tom cat.
Although I would never hold up Russian Law as being a reference standard that anything in particular should be based upon or judged by, there is this from the Sun article:
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 and rabbits in the wild — to become house-trained.
I'm guessing that if it was commonplace for Lynx raised in homes to turn upon owners who had hand-raised them from a kitten (cub?), there might be at least a cultural taboo associated with them, if not a legal one....and that doesn't seem to be the case.
I would be interested to see statistics on per-capita owner-maulings from Lynx as opposed to pitbulls.
Thank you very much for pinging your list :-)
Amen! I have a 22lb Orange Stripped Female Tabby and she literally fills the Litterbox every two days! Two litter boxes are kept busy all the time. Can only imagine what they are doing!
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