Let's see if it (or crossbreeds) can be tamed.
This particular one was actually being kept in a house because someone confused it for a "pretty housecat". After a while, the owner realized it didn't want to be tamed and contacted someone for help.
Also, it's the only known one in existence. Hard to start a breeding program unless they find more.
FTFA: "The man took the animal home, believing it to be a domestic breed. But after about a year of living with the clearly wild animal, he realized it would be better off at a sanctuary."
There's a YouTube (and other) channel out there about a guy and his (I use the possessive with caveats) coyote (named Weave). His motto is "Anything can be a pet if you don’t mind getting bit."
I think the lady that got mauled to death in 2018 at the lion preserve that guy works at might disagree with you if she hadn’t been y’know, mauled to death by a lion.
People also get mauled by dogs yet we don't consider that to mean that they can't be domesticated. A domesticated animal is still an animal and if its big enough to kill you can coommon enough then some people will be killed by it.
On the Craigslist homepage (on desktop) there is a gray navbar on the left side of the screen. That area has a calendar and some group of links below it. The second group of links below the calendar includes "best-of-craigslist" link.
I like that the Craigslist site design is utilitarian and hasn't changed much over the years. The downside is that stuff like this can hide in plain sight.
>"I'd be getting scared when a cat reaches the 20kg threshold" - most likely even 10kg cat will shred you before you could blink. They're insanely fast and surprisingly strong for size. Furry explosives they are
An angry cat in full fight mode will absolutely put a human in hospital, and the bites and scratches are teeming with potentially deadly bacteria.
They may be unique - a super-successful predator that has persuaded a more dominant species to look after it by looking cute and feeling soft and making relaxing noises.
my cat at its peak weight is about 8kg, and that's the size that i'd get a bit nervous around if i didn't know it's a tame housecat that runs away at sight of a mouse...
Cats are not really domesticated. I've heard various terms but semi-domesticated probably serves. They're very adaptable but not pack animals. You're sort of safe with house cats because they're small. You get less safe as the body weight goes up the scale.
It’s funny to hear they are not pack animals. I’m sure that is technically the case, especially in the wild, but my house cats definitely cling to me and follow me around like I am their leader. They groom/fight to try to establish a hierarchy below me, and when my partner comes home from work immediately switch allegiance to her, who they clearly see as the dominant mammal in the house.
They don’t go outside (they can’t really, it’s too busy by the road here and they’d decimate the wildlife, but I live with it because ultimately we’re doing them a huge favor by giving them a home, post-rescue) so I am sure that has something to do with it. Perhaps infantilism is keeping them in this pack headspace? But even then my mother’s cat — rural, murderous, tough tabby tom — treats her like a god and the rest of us as an annoyance.
As I wrote, they're adaptable. But there's a difference between true pack animals with an established hierarchy and being solitary but being open to other cats and species. Certainly, some cats are more pack-like (lions) and others are, or are more open to, being largely solitary.
I have 2 cats that are sisters. They have a very interesting dynamic. There isn't a fixed dominant sibling, they switch back and forth.
They antagonise each-other most of the time, but they also support each other in times of stress. If one goes to the vet and the other doesn't, the initial reaction is hissing and being a dick. Then, after a few minutes, it's licking and comforting.
I don't like to anthropomorphise too much, but they definitely look out for each-other. Equally, they definitely annoy each-other.
Domestic cats, are pack animals under some conditions.
Those and lions are the only cats known that don't mind to tolerate friends and non relatives around in their territories, cats clearly enjoy the company, form hierarchies and share food. Hyaenas and mongooses are related with cats and definitely social also. Lingsangs on the other way, are solitary.
My newest cat started as a stray. Cautious around humans, but not feral. He was hanging around a lot, so of course I started giving him food because I’m a sucker that way. He disappeared for a couple months, then showed up injured from a fight one day, so we took him to the hospital and ended up keeping him in the garage for a few days to recover. We also did the usual due diligence to locate an owner.
The rest, of course, is history. Now he’s a big 20lb goober of a cat who is positively enamored with my wife. The feeling is mutual.
There was a farm nearby where a mother cat died and all but two kittens died from hunger afterwards. We adopted one, my wife fed the kitten (which was way underage for adopting) with bottle.
Now she has been with us for years. She’s very loyal to me, dismissive to aggressive to anyone else. Not sure why me and not my wife, but hey :)
She basically sleeps next to me all the time, both when I work from home or at night. She’s 14 now, no medical issues.
I've watched a lot of horror shows that had no effect on me. But this one wasn't a horror show, it was for real. I found it very disturbing. I couldn't believe what I was watching.
If they do not have a developed prefrontal cortex acting as a filter from instinct to action, they will be nice or calm for a long time - until the whim occurs and they will act violently. Maybe just for a fraction of a second. And at that point, their strength and natural weapon will make a whole difference.
I remember seeing a wildcat in a sanctuary in Costa Rica with a similar story (the kittens looked like housecat kittens, so someone adopted them, but the adult cat's behavior was different enough to be really challenging). I've been trying to remember the exact species I saw there (maybe an oncilla?), but apparently there are several kinds of wildcat fairly easily mistaken for housecats as kittens.
I think not all of them categorically refuse to be pets, but they're noticeably more aggressive and less affectionate compared to housecats.
What do you mean it's the only one known? It got the name because locals called it that way. Locals will not call things they don't normally see.
Unfortunately while people are going wild as if someone found a never-before-seen cat, this is actually more “after genetic analysis we now know that the tiger cats that everyone already knew about in Bolivia are actually a different species to the ones in Brazil”.
But that’s not very exciting so people and news outlets seem to be running with the story as if nobody had ever seen one before.
> This particular one was actually being kept in a house because someone confused it for a "pretty housecat". After a while, the owner realized it didn't want to be tamed and contacted someone for help.
I mean, the dude tried to feed it "noodles, rice, and eggs" so I'm not sure if he'd be able to tame my very own house cat, even starting from the house cat's current stage of being entirely tamed.
That's not always the case. Some feral cats from colonies that are TNRed are found to be very receptive to humans and instead of returned sometimes offered for adoption instead of returned (the R in TNR)
However these come from a centuries-long bloodline of house cats of course. A species that's never been domesticated is very different.
autoexec · · focus · HN ↗
Bonus pics: <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/SEI_312819149.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/SEI_...
<a href="https://media.zenfs.com/en/live_science_953/73a4cafd69e9e86312a459e0206a1469.png" rel="nofollow">https://media.zenfs.com/en/live_science_953/73a4cafd69e9e863...
<a href="https://media.zenfs.com/en/live_science_953/1fea354ba7a8db696e3bc8750e32dca0.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://media.zenfs.com/en/live_science_953/1fea354ba7a8db69...
<a href="https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/get/maximage/20260917_1789662761-615.jpeg?1789662761" rel="nofollow">https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/get/maximage/20260917_17896627...
cromka · · focus · HN ↗
Also, they're only 3-4 lbs!
BeetleB · · focus · HN ↗
This particular one was actually being kept in a house because someone confused it for a "pretty housecat". After a while, the owner realized it didn't want to be tamed and contacted someone for help.
Also, it's the only known one in existence. Hard to start a breeding program unless they find more.
mlmonkey · · focus · HN ↗
Clearly you are not a cat person ... the question is not if it can be tamed, but how quickly it can tame the humans around it ... ;-)
shevy-java · · focus · HN ↗
Some animals are just harder to tame and remain ferocious more than others. But behaviour of animals is adaptable and most animals learn.
reaperducer · · focus · HN ↗
FTFA: "The man took the animal home, believing it to be a domestic breed. But after about a year of living with the clearly wild animal, he realized it would be better off at a sanctuary."
shagie · · focus · HN ↗
quickthrowman · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/28/africa/woman-killed-lion-sanctuary-intl/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/28/africa/woman-killed-lion-...
account42 · · focus · HN ↗
sscaryterry · · focus · HN ↗
WalterBright · · focus · HN ↗
sscaryterry · · focus · HN ↗
Cats are the perfect killing machines (apart from maybe sharks) :)
WalterBright · · focus · HN ↗
It doesn't look like it wants to be petted. I stay clear.
jstrieb · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ric/6881185958.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ric/6881185958.html
WalterBright · · focus · HN ↗
nunez · · focus · HN ↗
Where do you find this?!!??! This is GOLD!
jstrieb · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all" rel="nofollow">https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all
I like that the Craigslist site design is utilitarian and hasn't changed much over the years. The downside is that stuff like this can hide in plain sight.
nunez · · focus · HN ↗
FpUser · · focus · HN ↗
TheOtherHobbes · · focus · HN ↗
They may be unique - a super-successful predator that has persuaded a more dominant species to look after it by looking cute and feeling soft and making relaxing noises.
[deleted] · · focus · HN ↗
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fhe · · focus · HN ↗
anjel · · focus · HN ↗
ghaff · · focus · HN ↗
gorgoiler · · focus · HN ↗
They don’t go outside (they can’t really, it’s too busy by the road here and they’d decimate the wildlife, but I live with it because ultimately we’re doing them a huge favor by giving them a home, post-rescue) so I am sure that has something to do with it. Perhaps infantilism is keeping them in this pack headspace? But even then my mother’s cat — rural, murderous, tough tabby tom — treats her like a god and the rest of us as an annoyance.
ghaff · · focus · HN ↗
Intermernet · · focus · HN ↗
They antagonise each-other most of the time, but they also support each other in times of stress. If one goes to the vet and the other doesn't, the initial reaction is hissing and being a dick. Then, after a few minutes, it's licking and comforting.
I don't like to anthropomorphise too much, but they definitely look out for each-other. Equally, they definitely annoy each-other.
pvaldes · · focus · HN ↗
Those and lions are the only cats known that don't mind to tolerate friends and non relatives around in their territories, cats clearly enjoy the company, form hierarchies and share food. Hyaenas and mongooses are related with cats and definitely social also. Lingsangs on the other way, are solitary.
antonkochubey · · focus · HN ↗
tobyhinloopen · · focus · HN ↗
fibonachos · · focus · HN ↗
The rest, of course, is history. Now he’s a big 20lb goober of a cat who is positively enamored with my wife. The feeling is mutual.
tobyhinloopen · · focus · HN ↗
Now she has been with us for years. She’s very loyal to me, dismissive to aggressive to anyone else. Not sure why me and not my wife, but hey :)
She basically sleeps next to me all the time, both when I work from home or at night. She’s 14 now, no medical issues.
WalterBright · · focus · HN ↗
quickthrowman · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roar_(film)#Injuries_and_set_damages" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roar_(film)#Injuries_and_set_d...
WalterBright · · focus · HN ↗
olvy0 · · focus · HN ↗
WalterBright · · focus · HN ↗
mdp2021 · · focus · HN ↗
If they do not have a developed prefrontal cortex acting as a filter from instinct to action, they will be nice or calm for a long time - until the whim occurs and they will act violently. Maybe just for a fraction of a second. And at that point, their strength and natural weapon will make a whole difference.
schoen · · focus · HN ↗
I think not all of them categorically refuse to be pets, but they're noticeably more aggressive and less affectionate compared to housecats.
locallost · · focus · HN ↗
Nursie · · focus · HN ↗
Unfortunately while people are going wild as if someone found a never-before-seen cat, this is actually more “after genetic analysis we now know that the tiger cats that everyone already knew about in Bolivia are actually a different species to the ones in Brazil”.
But that’s not very exciting so people and news outlets seem to be running with the story as if nobody had ever seen one before.
pvaldes · · focus · HN ↗
There are almost identical animals from different species in the area. The scientific term is an species complex.
LaGrange · · focus · HN ↗
I mean, the dude tried to feed it "noodles, rice, and eggs" so I'm not sure if he'd be able to tame my very own house cat, even starting from the house cat's current stage of being entirely tamed.
avadodin · · focus · HN ↗
If you don't raise them with humans since they are born, they can't be tamed.
wolvoleo · · focus · HN ↗
However these come from a centuries-long bloodline of house cats of course. A species that's never been domesticated is very different.