Majestic Puma Rescued From The Zoo Lives As A Spoiled House Cat

Mariya and Aleksandr Dmitriev share a one-bedroom apartment with an odd pet animal – Messi. No not the star himself, but his namesake – a 90lb puma. The Russian couple first spotted Messi at the Saransk Zoo in Penza when he was just eight-months-old and they decided to take a shot and have him.

According to his wife Mariya, Aleksandr, 38, had always dreamed of owning a big cat, "He always thought about having a lynx – never a puma. It's hard to explain but we believe that having this puma as a house cat is part of our destiny." "We had three days of thinking hard about whether it was moral to keep such an exotic pet, and whether it was common sense to have one. But nothing could fight our sudden wish," Mariya, 28, told the Mirror. "So we went to the zoo and started negotiations to buy Messi. We were surprised ourselves when they agreed."