Don’t try this at home: African wildcat lives life of a pampered pet

By Jamie Smith

Meet Pumba the domesticated caracal who lives in comfort as a pampered house cat.

Deniss Jegorovs took in Pumba, now five, as a three-month-old kitten. The African wildcat now loves being fussed, fed and cuddled at home.

It is legal to own caracal cats in Latvia, where Deniss, 18, lives.

He admits that although Pumba hisses at him a lot, he is an exceedingly kind animal and likes to rub against their feet and sleep next to them, like any other cat would.

Despite the challenges of caring for a big cat, including massive food bills and ensuring that Pumba does not escape and get lost, Pumba is one of the family.

Deniss said: “Pumba usually wakes up with us in the morning and begins to beg for food.

"In the summer he lives outside, but because we live in Central Europe in the autumn it gets pretty cold, so Pumba lives inside from the middle of autumn until the middle of spring.

“Pumba hates being alone so he usually follows us during the day.

“He likes sitting next to us and watching TV in the evening. We usually feed him three times a day. He also likes spending time with our two other cats, a Maine Coon and British Shorthair."

“Our main challenge is not to let Pumba escape from our territory, because it happened in the past and he could not find a way home, so we were searching for him for two days.

"Also in the winter our lake turns into ice and Pumba tries to leave our territory crossing the lake. That is why we keep him inside in the winter.

“His attention is everything to us. Pumba is smarter than a regular cat, that is why his communication and signs of love are more frank than other cats.

“People are usually excited to see Pumba for the first time. But some people are scared of him and ask if he is dangerous.

"When Pumba was smaller we were going out with him, some people even wanted to take a photo with him.

“Pumba is a very kind animal when you are not annoying him. He does not like to be alone, sometimes he even screams when feels lonely."

“He spends all day near us watching everything we do. Pumba is a complete member of our family we really love him!”

Male caracals usually weigh between 16 and 42 pounds and are illegal to keep as pets in most US states.