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Rescued Puma Can't Live In The Wild, So Becomes A Giant, Spoiled House Cat

People have a lot of opinions about keeping exotic animals as pets and in most cases those animals don't belong in human homes, but sometimes a special case arises.

That's what happened in the story of Messi, a 90-pound puma that lives like a spoiled house cat in Russia.

Messi was born at the Saransk Zoo along with two other cubs, before he was sold to a petting zoo in Penza.

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He suffered from a number of health issues that prevented the petting zoo from keeping him and made him unsuitable for wildlife sanctuaries. At three months old, they were considering the option of euthanasia.

It was then that Alexandr and Mariya Dmitriev visited the zoo and fell in love with the little cub.

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After a few days of consideration, they returned to the zoo and offered to buy him, saving him from being put down.

They carefully nursed him back to health, though he'll only ever grow to be about half the size of an average puma.

They were also careful to socialize and train him for domesticated life.

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He goes for regular walks and spends time with larger dogs, learning to play nice. He's even taken basic canine obedience classes.

Messi is even house-trained, if in an unusual way.

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Imagine the size of the litter box he would need!

Instead, Messi has been trained to go to the bathtub to urinate when his humans are unavailable for an outdoor potty break.

He really does seem like a big house cat in the videos.

If you'd like to follow Messi's domestic life, be sure to follow him on Instagram @I_am_puma and YouTube.

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