I am a cat person. But somehow it happened that I have eight dogs: six huskies, a Samoyed dog, and a Northern Inuit dog. Obviously, it wasn’t safe to adopt a kitten having this band of doggos. But I wanted a cat so badly! So I started searching for the cat my dogs would be able to get on with.
After a while, I found out that in my country, fur farms still exist. On one such farm, lynxes are bred for their fur. Coats from lynxes’ fur are quite popular in Russia. But the good news was that it’s legal to take a lynx cub from there and to raise it on your own.It wasn’t a hard decision—I adopted a tiny baby lynx whose destiny was to become a fur coat. I named him Geralt after Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher.
I rescued a lynx cub from the fur farm
Surprisingly, the dogs helped us a lot with Geralt's care. They played with the kitten, allowed him to chew their ears, to sleep on their bellies, and, of course, to steal their food
And Banshee, our senior dog, took the baby lynx under her wing
Geralt was growing up a naughty kitty, but he definitely is the life and soul of the huskies’ party
Moreover, he’s familiar with one of my horses, Texas!
It was a long journey, but I gave him all my love and managed to raise and tame him successfully. He is something in between cat and dog
He’s a big, clumsy ball of fur
When Geralt was one year old, I rescued one more kitten, a cute baby girl
She got the name Bulochka, which means “bun” in our language because she’s so sweet!
Wild lynxes are loners, and I was ready for my cats to live separately, but Geralt surprised me. He accepted little Bulochka as if she was his daughter
Our friends were joking that we should name her Ciri instead of Bulochka
And since then, my lynxes are thick as thieves. Just look at these pretty sleepy noses!
After raising two lynxes, I can say with confidence that the most challenging thing in a rescue is health
Due to the aim of breeding on the fur farm, animals’ health isn’t a priority
Geralt has broken his elbow and a toe once, and he is a quite healthy and lucky one!
Taming and training the lynx isn’t so difficult. They use a simple cat litter box and are trained to walk on a leash
And they purr! The same way as domestic cats do, but much louder
Now, I enjoy my life with all my lynxes, huskies, and horses and I love helping people who decide to rescue big cats, to raise and tame them
And I hope that next year, I’ll be able to rescue one more baby lynx from the fur farm
