The wildcat was found near a forest belt when a rare African predator came out to the road. The journalists of TV Center told about how the serval wandered in the forest for several weeks.
At first, information appeared in local publications that a predator similar to a leopard, but very small, was roaming near Nizhny Novgorod. Concerned Novgorodians went out in search of him, took the wildcat and handed it over to volunteers. By this point, the animal was so weak that it did not even try to resist. After a cursory inspection, the volunteers brought the serval for overexposure to the Smolin family, known locally for their great love of cats.
Ilya Smolin and his wife Maria have been caring for sick and abandoned wild cats for many years, and at the same time live with them under the same roof in their private house. Now the serval has been added to the large family, where lynx, savannas, caraquet and cats already live. The foundling was first named Maximus, but later it turned out that the serval's name was Therion, which means "beast" in Greek.
"This wild cat has been chipped and has been officially brought into the country, apparently. It has documents and even vaccinations. The chip is scanned by a special scanner. Then the number makes its way through public databases. It usually indicates the clinic where they chipped and some other data. They found the owner, told us that he bought a serval in Moscow, he lived in his apartment for three or four months, and then sold the beast to Novocheboksarsk. Which is strange, because they found Therion in the Borsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region, it's beyond the Volga and not on the way at all. And he himself could not escape there," Ilya Smolin said.
Therefore, it is difficult to believe in the story of the sale of a cat in Nizhny Novgorod. According to Ilya Smolin, the volunteers have information that a serval was brought to one of the clinics in Bor, next to which the animal was found, to be euthanized. But without medical indications, the clinic refused to perform euthanasia. Therefore, now animal rights activists are increasingly inclined to believe that they simply could not cope with the wildcat and decided to release it into the forest.
"It turned out that the animal is seriously ill, he has rickets due to malnutrition. Lack of calcium and low mobility. They need bones in their diet. We will put it in order on our own. He is better now, we give him special vitamins," Ilya continues.
The serval or African lynx is an expensive pet. The price of these wild cats ranges in Russia from 650 thousand rubles to 2.5 million. Now Therion lives with the Smolin family in the bathhouse, walks on the plot, but does not let anyone near him and, as the head of the family says, "swears a lot." It hasn't settled in yet. But it is possible that the serval will stay with Ilya and Maria forever and soon a new aviary will appear in the family's house.
Photo from the Smolin family's personal archive.