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Puma Rescued From a Zoo Now Lives a Luxurious Life as a House Cat

Aleksandr and Mariya from Russia live in a one-bedroom apartment with one of the biggest names in football – Messi. Well, not the football player per say, but a 90lb puma that was named after the football star. The lovely pair first saw the puma when he was 8-months old at the Saransk Zoo and they knew that they had to have him.

Messi was born at the zoo, together with his two brothers Neymar and Suarez. Although life was not too bad at the zoo, Messi suffered from serious health problems. When the pair found out about his condition, the couple asked if they could buy the cub and help him out.

Aleksandr always wanted to own a big cat, a lynx, never a puma. The pair believes that having Messi is part of their destiny.

“We had three days of thinking hard about whether it was moral to keep a puma, 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 ourselves when they agreed,” explains Mariya.

Taking care of a puma can be quite challenging. Messi needed extra medical attention and a lot of love and caring. Not to mention he’s a wild animal! Messi also needs a lot of exercise so his parents bought him a special coat and harness so they can walk 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,” says Aleksandr.

Messi even attends a dog training school and learned to respond to 10 different commands.

Living with an exotic cat is quite the experience and that’s why the pair documents their life with their house cat on social media and people are loving it. Messi now has more than 500.000 followers on Instagram.

Source: Bored Panda