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.”
I hand raised a baby squirrel.
She was very cute, but had claws you would not believe.
She thought of me as a combination mom and tree, I looked like a road map...
A dangerous unpredictable creature... and a lynx.
With a cat that big, it’s either “I’m hungry and you’re dinner” or “move your butt and get me a slab of meat”. LOL. Kind of makes you feel like a piece of raw meat... CHOMP!
Angror is a Jabberwock.
I think.
Jaws that bite and claws that catch an’ all of that stuff.
“they don’t know what happened to him.”
Old age, bear, coyote, or a mix of one of the two.
Had a bobby domestic mix that I called Mimi.
[Screaming Mimi that is, she was lightning fast and had a howl to her when she got upset. Thankfully it was rare that she was upset.]
She was a little fluffball of love that became a large fluffball of “Your lap is MINE now hyooman!”
An affectionate if slightly insistant cat.
...of course if that's not exotic enough, you could always graduate to a hyena...
How to wash a cat
This was simply too much of a timesaver not to share it with you.
1. Put both lids of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl...
2. Pick up the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.
3. In one smooth movement put the cat in the toilet and close the lid. You may need to stand on the lid.
4. At this point the cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this!
5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a ‘Power-Wash’ and ‘Rinse’.
6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.
7. Stand well back, behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift the lid.
8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where he will dry himself off.
9. Both the toilet and the cat will be sparkling clean.
Yours Sincerely,
The Dog
Why does it not surprise me that Nully is a Far Side fan?
She sounds like a handful. I joke that if my Misty were human, she’d be Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction.
I’m still mourning the day Larson retired.
Mimi wasn’t too bad.
She was actually the most well behaved cat I’ve ever had.
She had a pathological hatred for snakes, anything that looked like a snake, and foam suds coming out of the drain pipes though.
LOL!
And a pit bull doesn't have near the bite strength of a dozen or so other breeds.
WOW!
Wolverine?? That is something.
Now the guy with the hyena really impresses me. He is one bad dude.
If anyone could befriend a wolverine, it would be Hunter S. Thompson.
I won’t say the joke, but I’m thinking it. ;^)
“Here doggy, doggy, doggy!”
Has to be better than Travis the chimp.
beautiful cat... beautiful child...I predict that one day the child will not be so beautiful.
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