A Nizhny Novgorod citizen spoke about a cheerful life with 28 cats and one lynx
A Nizhny Novgorod citizen keeps a Carpathian lynx at home. Photo: provided by the hero of the publication.
Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur Ilya Smolin and his wife have organized a real paradise for cat lovers on the territory of their private house. In the Bogorodsky district, 29 representatives of the cat family live on eight acres of land. Oddly enough, all of them, including many thoroughbreds, were picked up from the street and returned to breeders due to restless nature or other reasons. His most unusual pet is a 4-year-old male Carpathian lynx named Riks, who was brought from the Moscow region. The predator peacefully coexists with other inhabitants of the household – he gathered his cat clan and got a girlfriend. “KP-Nizhny Novgorod” found out from the owner how he lives with a lynx, and why cats rule the world.
Talented goalkeeper and coffee lover
As the head of the family said, in the Moscow region there is a breeding fur farm “Saltykovsky”, where different types of animals are bred. Lynxes were kept for the sake of the skin from which fur coats were made, but then it became forbidden. There were many breeding producers left who had new kittens and no one knew what to do with them. Interested people bought and adopted lynx cubs at two weeks of age, fed and socialized, and then resold at a premium. So in 2019, the spouses legally had a small lynx, who was named Ricks.
In Nizhny Novgorod, the lynx turned out to be 2 months old. Photo: provided by the hero of the publication.
Slowly, the predator began to get used to it – he took a fancy to the aviary, learned to walk through the cat’s door, he got his favorite toys and culinary preferences.
Rixie loves football. Photo: provided by the hero of the publication.
Ricks himself is a calm and tame boy. He loves affection, rubbing and butting, growls when he is scratched behind the ear. The tailed one is very attached to those whom he considers his own, and can yearn for a long time without them. For example, in 2021, the couple went on vacation, leaving their pets with their parents. Rixie did not understand where they had gone and refused to eat until he heard the hostess on the speakerphone. And the wild cat is very careful about his favorite toys from childhood.
Rixie really likes the smell of coffee. Photo: provided by the hero of the publication.
In Ilya’s social networks, the video “Rixie and Beni is a nanny” is especially popular. On his footage, a Bengal cat cheerfully licks a lynx, which does not resist at all and enjoys the process.
Shurka the cat is Rixie’s girlfriend. Photo: provided by the hero of the publication.
Despite the pranks and pranks of the fluffy ones, the couple managed to negotiate with each pet and create comfortable conditions for him. So, about 100 thousand rubles are spent on feed alone every month – a large amount of dry Italian food, a tray of spiders and chicken meat are purchased.
In addition to Rixie, the house contains 28 cats, mostly thoroughbreds.
Photo: provided by the hero of the publication.
Keeping a whole house of cats is not an easy task, but spouses are already used to cleaning 2 times a day and taking pets in groups for vaccination. Each cat has its own place to sleep, its own toys, its own litter box.
The house is specially equipped with a cat door with a curtain so that pets can go out onto the terrace and into the yard. Rixie has her own walkway to the outdoor enclosure. For the safety of animals, the entire territory is surrounded by a fence made of corrugated board 2.6 meters high. Some pets do not stop even this circumstance.
“Midnight drove us through the snowdrifts” Rixie loves to drive the hosts through the snow. Photo: provided by the hero of the publication.
Over the past few years, fidget Rixie has repeatedly made his breadwinners nervous. Ilya told the story of how once he and his wife had to spend a lot of effort to catch a runaway rascal:
Curiosity killed the cat, says an English proverb. This will not happen to Rix, because the owners do everything for his safety, but the inquisitive nature of the lynx has led to funny situations more than once. For example, once he hung on the fence, and in another situation he almost fell from the bathhouse along with the owner.
Each cat has its own litter box. Photo: provided by the hero of the publication.
Rix does not yet have his own blog, but Ilya’s page in one of the social networks has already been signed by 4,000 people. The number of virtual friends continues to grow inexorably thanks to posts about the everyday life of a lynx. Each video gains more than a hundred likes, even taking into account the fact that Ilya deliberately does not advertise his cats anywhere. They are part of his life, his pets and friends.
