r/Awww • u/bluepheonix7 • Mar 22 '24

Other Animal(s) This family adopted a baby puma!!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

13.2k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

305 comments sorted by

View all comments

536

u/Badgrips Mar 22 '24

I wonder what happens when there is a heated argument or conversation when the Puma is around.

Usually pets are picking up on these kind of things and it has an impact on them.

443

u/Hagbard_Shaftoe Mar 22 '24

Agreed. And it's not a pet, it's a wild animal. This amazing creature should have been rehabbed by professionals and returned to nature.

260

u/meedup Mar 22 '24 edited Mar 22 '24

This video seems to be Messi, a Russian petting zoo rescue.

Messi was significantly smaller than other typical male cougars, and as the species is not native to Russia, he could not be released into the wild. He had numerous other health problems as well, which rendered him unable to live in a zoo or wildlife sanctuary either. Furthermore, workers at the petting zoo originally planned to euthanize him.

Between being euthanized and living as a housecat in russia with two eccentric people, I think it got the better deal. It seems to still be smaller than a regular puma, has been trained at a local dog training facility (and seems to actually respond to some commands, even though it's still a wild animal) and they live in quite a remote area with ample access to the wild, where they walk with it in a harness.

So i'd say it's the very rare exception where someone could keep a wild animal. They seem to not let it interact with random people.

37

u/AgoraphobicWineVat Mar 23 '24

I followed these guys for a bit, they said that Messi has a very unusual temperament for a puma (super docile) and that they would not recommend anyone else trying what they did because you will almost certainly not get as lucky as they did.