Malaika
A puma is not a house pet.
Now, I am not going to sit here and hate on these people for bringing up this puma as a pet. Because as they say, he was sick and needed help. So they bought him and nursed him back to health. And I think the puma is quite grateful for that. However, that doesn’t mean his natural instincts can’t take over at any moment. And that is what has so many people worried. The name of this Puma is Messi after the famous soccer player.
You see, this puma was part of a contact type zoo but when this couple saw him, they wanted to have him no matter what. In their own words, they believe owning this puma was a part of their destiny and they can’t imagine living without him. And that is shown in his social media that has amassed quite the following. You can see some of the most adorable pictures below.
Source: Instagram
This is Messi who lives as a spoiled house cat now.
He was sold to the zoo when he was only 3 months old.
And sadly he was always quite sick in the zoo.
So when this couple saw the puma, they had to have him.
He always thought about having a lynx – never a puma. It’s hard to explain but we believe that having this puma as a house cat is part of our destiny.
From the looks of it, he loves his life.
And they have tried training him as well.
We had three days of thinking hard about whether it was moral to keep such an exotic pet, and whether it was common sense to have one. But nothing could fight our sudden wish. So we went to the zoo and started negotiations to buy Messi. We were surprised when they agreed.
But that has been hard as they weren’t able to find an instructor for that.
According to them, he required a lot of attention which they were happy to give him.
He is like a dog. We started taking him for a walk, step by step. The animal hadn’t been really active before. Now we walk a lot twice a day, as it’s supposed to be. It doesn’t differ much from owning a dog in this sense.
They even take him to a dog training school.
And it seems to be working for them for now.
He convinced us with his behavior that he’s a full member of our family and that he wouldn’t be doing anything bad apart from some small naughty things. He’s very kind and likes contact. He gets on very well with people.
They clearly love the big cat as is apparent in most pictures.
They’ve also had to make a lot of changes to their house to accommodate a puma.
Which was challenging as they live in a one-bedroom apartment.
“He is just an ordinary cat, but a big one. He has all the habits of a cat.”
They realize that keeping a wild animal cooped up is dangerous.
But they know that he is a special animal.
There is no doubt that he is special.
However, is this better for him than a sanctuary or a zoo?
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think this is wrong. It’s a wild animal, it should not live indoors but go to a special sanctuary. I think it’s typical that some people think they can just buy anything they want and not look at what is best for the animal (declawing for example is extremely cruel). And by posting tons of photos and vids online, other people will see this as normal and some might even want this too. Not a good thing if you ask me.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments.