This cougar plays with an empty bottle like a dog (video)

The cougar, with eyes wide with excitement, eagerly plays with its toy. Its behavior is surprisingly dog-like.

Watch in the video how the majestic cougar named Messi plays with an empty soda bottle. And if you scroll down, you'll also find out why this amazing wild animal is living in an apartment.

His behavior is both dog-like and undeniably cat-like. He wags his tail while pouncing on the bottle as if he were capturing prey. It's clear that his owners put time and effort into playing with Messi, who unfortunately doesn't have the option of living in the wild. The cougar in the video is a rescued animal, and his caretakers received permission to keep him. They bought him from a petting zoo. Due to his smaller size compared to male pumas and some health issues, he was going to be euthanized. According to them, he wouldn’t have been fit to live in a zoo or a wildlife reserve.

Messi has never attacked anyone or anything, and the Dimitriev family has trained him at a local dog training facility, where he managed to learn 10 commands. Naturally, the family has faced plenty of criticism for keeping a potentially dangerous wild animal in an apartment. They insist that Messi wouldn’t survive in the wild. Interestingly, when wild cats reach sexual maturity – for cougars, this happens by age three at the latest – they tend to become more aggressive, even if they were previously tame and accustomed to humans. Surprisingly, this didn’t happen with Messi. We don't know whether his training, his health issues, or other factors influenced this outcome.