A cat, a baby bottle and two wild kitties: a lynx and a puma were raised at home in Mykolaiv

At the Mykolaiv Zoo, the institution’s employee Tetiana Sindzhoyan raised at home the lynx Marysia and the puma Amina after their mothers abandoned them. This unusual story was reported on 13 April 2026 by Suspilne Mykolaiv. Now the animals already live at the zoo, but they go for walks every day with their foster mother. At the time of publication Marysia was 9 months old, and Amina – 8 months.

According to Tetiana Sindzhoyan, both of the predatory cats had to be hand-reared. The lynx received maternal milk for some time, but later the female stopped nursing her. And the puma, as the zoo worker said, was born prematurely and her mother did not accept her from the first days. After that the animals ended up at the zoo worker’s home, where the whole family cared for them.

In the apartment Marysia and Amina were nursed for about four months. The youngsters were fed special milk from a bottle, and at the beginning — every two hours, even at night. Besides feeding, they also had to replace maternal care: to stimulate them as the female does in nature so they could develop normally.

The family’s housecat became a separate “nanny” for the wild cats. He was the one who helped teach Marysia and Amina to use the litter box. And Tetiana Sindzhoyan herself gradually acclimated her wards to car trips, because the animals had to be taken with her to work at the zoo every day. According to her, the puma liked to sit in the back of the car, while the lynx more often chose the front seat.

The wild cats lived alongside people almost like household pets: they slept with the family, befriended all the apartment’s residents, and the lynx sometimes even “watched” television. Despite this, both now live in a zoo enclosure, although they remain very attached to each other and to the woman who saved them.

On how the animals felt around people,  Suspilne Mykolaiv.

“The milk is special. We fed them exactly like our own children. At first — every two hours, we woke up at night, because in nature their mother licks them, stimulating them to relieve themselves. I did the same — stimulated them. I fed them from a bottle,” said the “cat mom” Tetiana Sindzhoyan in a comment to journalists.

Today Marysia and Amina remain inseparable. In the zoo they live together, respond to their names and, according to the caregiver, are always ready to go for a walk with their second mother. For Mykolaiv this story has become a rare example of how profession, care and true attachment can literally save the lives of wild animals.

Earlier we wrote:

• Short of hands: Mykolaiv Zoo calls for volunteers to clean the ponds
• Why tapirs and capybaras disappeared: Mykolaiv Zoo explained the situation
• Mykolaiv Zoo invites residents to greet the white bears Smetanka and Zefirka
• Halloween at the zoo: Mykolaiv residents are lured with rats and cockroaches
• New zoo stars: funny rodents have arrived in Mykolaiv