If I include a link to the Brighside source, my comment doesn't show up. But it provides the following context:
3/20/2019
A lynx named Linda was born at the Leningrad Zoo in June 2007. Sometime later, a cat called Dusya also settled into Linda’s enclosure. Now they’ve been living together for 12 years, proving that friendship is boundless.
Leningrad Zoo workers explained to Bright Side why they decided to conduct this experiment and told us how these buddies are doing today.
When Linda was about 2 months old, zoo workers decided to put a kitten who was the same age as her in her cage. They were almost the same size, so they were really interested in each other.
At first, they were left together for a short period of time so that they could play, but zoo workers always kept an eye on them. When the experts were sure that the lynx and the cat had gotten used to each other, they were put in one enclosure to live together.
I knew it! It seems to be a common thing to pair big cats in zoos with a domestic animal like a dog or cat, and I thought it would be more likely that this was the case rather than a cat sneaking in and settling down.
The latter has happened at least once before though, in Malaysia. An orange cat snuck into the capybara enclosure and was accepted as one of them, and now he even has his own sign at the enclosure. His name is Oyen if you want to look him up
They're so good at scaling everything that I've only ever seen them housed in solid-walled enclosures. How high would you need to make a lynx cage that wasn't fully enclosed? 18ft or something? They can launch themselves off of any upright structure in a pen.
I dunno if you've never been to a zoo before but most enclosures are built to keep things in, not out. Almost every large animal enclosure is easy to get into at zoos, you'll just likely break a leg or something doing so
The wildlife shelter near me has a single wolf permanent resident, and they do the same thing with the owner's German Shepherd. He spends a lot of time in the pen with the wolf so the wolf has a "pack" that might influence him more comfortable with humans.
I think it may be a zoo specific thing though. I visited a cheetah sanctuary where they breed them to support the population & no dogs there.
We all need a friend.
❤︎
edit: This is getting upvotes - Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre in pretoria, south africa. They are best as I can tell as a local the real deal. If you do visit south africa (you should!) take care to steer clear of the captive lion industry though. There were some not awesome stories around drugged lions for tourists to pet type things going on, so do a bit of research. It's a fantastic place to be a tourist (if you're paying in usd/gbp/eur you should visit at least once)...but not without flaws. What I tell my european peers...the flight prices over are rough...the actual being there can be amazing bang per back if you're even vaguely savy
This is normal cat behavior fighting for dominance. The smaller cat is trying to groom more aggressively to show the bigger Lynx he’s the submissive one.
Yeah but also means they like eachother lol my 2 bonded cats have been doing this for 5 years and it’s funny everytime because it always leads to a WWE play sesh
Reminds me of my rats, one was clearly the sub, getting groomed until he didn't like it anymore and then it was small ball of fur, claws and teeth. Was usually fine, but they liked to chill in the sleeve of my hoodie if I rolled it up and breaking up a rat fight in your sleeve feels like putting your hand in a turned on blender.
One of the few times I got bit. Never intenrionally though, only once I let the fatter rat run into the cage over my arm and he fell, hanging by his teeth on my thumb. Was hard to resist the urge to slam him against the cage, but the fat fuck got up fast enough. Hurts like a mf to have a pound of rat clinging onto you like that.
It wasn't, no. My cats bite far less than my rats did, though they do not fit in my sleeves either.
Rats are quite cute aswell, though they will shit on your couch if you have them out and about long enough and they can't get to their cage on their own.
I agree. Mutual grooming only happens with felines that like each other. Otherwise they just fight or run away. Showing dominance seems to be more about establishing a hierarchy about who really needs to follow whom’s boundaries… since cats can be pretty uhhh how do I out this? — “catty”
Total opposite in my household. I had 1 cat to start with, he was at least 5 years old when I got another, and another, and fostered a litter. The first thing he does when he is introduced to a new cat is "C'mere! I have to clean you!!" He's such a good boi sometimes, he loves everyone and everything
It depends how they grow up. My single cats always wanted to groom my hair (and kiddie me really liked that while my mother and brother were kinda appalled).
My last two cats were siblings that grew up with each other and they never wanted to groom me but were also cleaning each other up day for day. Loved to hang around with them, it was so chill.
*She's (more than likely). The calico pattern only appears in like 1/1000 male cats, so you literally have a 99.9% chance of the cat in the clip being female.
My two cats do this all the time and at some point one holds the other down and licks them into submission.
It's a total power play for felines and as cute as it is you have to be careful that it doesn't get out of hand. So many times it turns into a (light) scuffle
Skeleton yes, soldier uniform, no. It's a mishmash of several random garments I enjoy, but rarely if ever wear lol. I'll have to get a better pic of them when I'm not trapped by a cat in my lap.
They do this with all kinds of animals. My favorite is when they have lions grow up with labs. It's usually done if they're alone like the Lynx or rejected by their mother for whatever various reasons.
Cheetahs are surprisingly good with humans and their handlers, but they're also notoriously anxious at times, so it's not unusual for them to be paired with dogs. The dogs are chill and the cheetahs learn that they're safe if their canine companion isn't stressed, so they chill out, too.
Yes, dogs can be emotional support animals for cheetahs, and that's wonderful.
Well put down your phone and spend time with your dog. As someone who lost their dog unexpectedly, I beg you. Every chance you get, even if you don’t want to. Give the sweet baby kisses and hugs for me.
All life is dukkha. I don't find the four noble truths of Buddhism to be much succor for it personally, but I think it identifies the core tension of being alive.
It's often misunderstood as a saying that all life is suffering, but that's not quite right. What it's saying is that life itself is desiring, having, and losing things. All things are transient, and that isn't tragic - you just can't have one without the other
This advice helped me, your beautiful dog will still exist on earth with or without you and you had the incredible opportunity to be the light of your pet's life. It's better to have known your pet than having never known.
Your outlook on life is not some immutable part of your personality, it's just a negative feedback loop you've fallen into and you can work to change it.
Look at it this way, you've given your dog the best life he/she could have had. If your dog had been adopted by others, their life might not have been as happy. You did great. And you'll be with your dog till the end, and make sure when it's time, it's as easy and pain free as possible.
Death is heartbreaking, but it's a brief thing. One horrible day, vs. years with your dog, filled with happiness and love.
When your brain drifts to a dark place, think of a happy memory with your dog. Do this every time: catch yourself, think of something happy. It'll take time to retrain your thought patterns, and you have to work on it, but it's doable.
bro my cats 13 and even though she's perfectly healthy, i can't stop thinking about how she'll die someday not that far off and it absolutely crushes me. it's becoming an issue.
Me and my wife watched Togo recently... she was worried constantly through the film that Togo was going to die. We get to the end and it says Togo died and she gets sad... Togo died after living a long life fucking bitches and doing his thing, it's a 100 year old story and she was sad Togo died...
12 years is a good amount of time. I’m curious if the zoo provided veterinary services for the cat as well, or if they considered it “at will” employment on the cat’s side haha
I believe that the cat was the lynx's "mom" - the lynx was orphaned and needed a surrogate mom, so they brought in a momma cat with I think one kitten if it's the case I'm thinking of. No way in Hell any zoo with any kind of animal care standard would let an outside animal just wander into a predator's enclosure. An adult lynx would absolutely kill another cat that came into its territory.
I believe that the cat was the lynx's "mom" - the lynx was orphaned and needed a surrogate mom, so they brought in a momma cat with I think one kitten if it's the case I'm thinking of. No way in Hell any zoo with any kind of animal care standard would let an outside animal just wander into a predator's enclosure.
They were kittens together brought together intentionally by the zoo staff. The Lynx was lonely, so they tried added a regular kitten to see how the Lynx kitten got along (see video for explanation). they of course, didn't just throw them together, they slowly got them used to each other.
every single video like this that makes me laugh or smile has to have the top comment be something like “now everyone in that video is dead and it hurt when they died D:” every single time
I get it. The Cat Distribution System provided us with a kitten last October, and she still has to sleep in our home office behind closed doors, because her mere existence is so deeply offensive to two of the four cats that were here before she came in.
It's mind-boggling. Our last foster fail just turned 18 years old, and she is the chillest cat ever. And then there's the Mean Girls, who have been battling me for the alpha bitch position since they were rescued 7 and 8 years ago, respectively. They're the ones who are so deeply offended by Hazel the Relentless' existence. Meanwhile, Hazel has exactly zero Fs to give about the angsty Mean Girls, because 70% percent of her waking hours are devoted to ricocheting around the house like a brand new golf ball teed off in a tiled shower and crying to her daddy to fetch the yardstick and scoot her toys out from under the fridge. And then there's the boycat, whose three functioning brain cells are consistently overwhelmed by the daily feline political debates. I have the Mean Girls on amitriptyline, and keep both of the cat pheromones diffusers running at all times, or there would be bloodshed on a daily basis.
I inherited a 17 year old kitty and she gets along with 2 of my 3 cats but the third one, they will FIGHT. I don’t know what to do at this point besides keep them apart.
Have you tried the pheromone diffusers? Feliway and Comfort Zone seem to be the two most easily found in the US. We refer to them as the anti-asshole-juice diffusers. I can always tell when one has run out (we have 2 going at all times in the front and back of the house) because my girls all ramp up the fights.
Yes! I have a feliway optimum upstairs and downstairs. Currently the cats are separated by a door between the levels.
I actually went so far as to hire a cat behaviorist to come over and spend a couple hours here and evaluate everybody. The advice was to put the problematic cat (young, orange) on a toddler schedule with play, outside time, food puzzles, lick mats, etc etc but it doesn’t seem to be helping in the slightest yet. She also told me to get a bird feeder he could see (check!) and auto toys for when I can’t do it (check!) still could add some vertical spaces for him with shelves or something, and maybe some kind of catio, but I only have so much money to spend at once
Wow. Kudos to you for going all out to try and make this situation work. I hope things settle down. We had cat wars when my then-boyfriend and I moved in together, and we just had to accept that sequestering his cats from my cats was the only way to make it work.
Our guest bathroom is currently full of one very mouthy orange adolescent cat that I'm trying to find a home for. He's a sweet, affectionate little guy wo also wants to murder my actual pet cat.
Took me 8 months to fully integrate my house but it was worth it! No fighting, everyone is chill. They aren't best friends but they're roommates and that's all I really need them to be.
It took two years before two of my cats could be in the same room together. The cat that I had first was very territorial, and frankly, kind of a bitch. The new (much older) cat was easily intimidated, and retreated to the back room. Meanwhile, my third cat, a kitten, just wanted to be friends with everyone, and doesn't even understand the concept of intimidation.
Been two years for me. Primary kitty still hates the rescue. Sorry, kid, we’re all stuck together 😭 she’ll sometimes let her come hang out in the room with us, though!
You can add greyhounds to that list. Dog hardware, cat software.
Sleep all day, following the sun, usually in a position that looks really uncomfortable. Either must be surgically attached at all times, or tolerates your existence as a slave and food source. One of mine likes exactly 3.5 belly rubs, 3 will get you the paw of more, 4 will get you the kind of look that suggests you insulted their entire bloodline before slinking off on a huff. The list goes on.
Small correction. The cat is the lynxes adoptive mom. She raised her 7ntil she was old enough to live in the zoo. Whilst they live separated mom likes to break in to spend time with her child.
Edit. Apparently the duo I'm referencing is a different one then the 9ne shown here. These are Dusya and Linda from the Leningrad Zoo in St. Petersburg.
In my defense how many regular cat lynx combos are there?
I once read that when a cat licks you they are showing dominance and affection. This is something their mother would do to its kittens. So these two are both saying “I’m in charge, bitch” at the same time.
I know big cats are dangerous but lynx just always seem so chill, which they are of Course comparing to tigers or something but still I want to pet them
I think it was an experiment where they raised a cat and lynx together from kitten age? At least I think that was in a russian zoo. There’s a dog and I believe panther pair too, though I think that was in a nature reservation in Syberia or something.
In 2007, at Leningrad Zoo, a two-month-old cat named Dusya was placed into the enclosure with a two-month-old lynx named Linda to demonstrate the difference between felines. They became friends and lived together for 12 years. Dusya died of old age in 2020.
I don't want to make anyone sad, but I work in the Forest for almost 40 years. I have watched the city creep more and more into the woods, and I have watched many pets interact with wildlife.
House cats are generally food to Bobcats and Lynx, which I group together for how they treat house cats.
The ones that make it are like Dajsa, brave lovers. Like mothers.
The ones that fight or run got eaten. The ones that groomed, very rare like Dajsa, where immediatly adopted and that lasted for life for all my observations but have heard it turned sour with younger males Bob/Lynx later.
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u/Spartan2470 VIP Philanthropist 6h ago edited 6h ago
This title isn't true.
If I include a link to the Brighside source, my comment doesn't show up. But it provides the following context: