Serval on the kitchen counter smacks dog who's on the floor

This is an unusual household. The woman calls herself a 'serval whisperer' by which she means that she is a serval expert and can communicate with her cat companion. Servals are wild cats. They are lanky. In fact, they have the longest legs to overall size of all the wild cat species.

Serval on the kitchen counter smacks dog who's on the floor. Screenshot.

Some people might like to see the video below and some might think that this looks just fine. I don't. I think it is entirely wrong to have a serval as a pet confined to the home which they must be. You cannot let this cat go outside alone for obvious reasons. And when they are confined to a home like this they want to escape. Some do escape and often they are killed outside by the police who shoot them because a neighbour complained that there is a wild animal roaming around the neighbourhood. Or a car hit them. The outcome is normally bad.

Note: This is a video from another website which is embedded here. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

@servalwhisperer Whack my chicken ! #bigcat #animals #cataoftiktok #kitten #funny ♬ original sound - Loki - aka God of Mischief

The cat is obviously slightly twitchy about the presence of the dog. This is why she slaps him. This indicates a little bit of friction between the two. No surprise there. I wonder whether the serval whisperer could do something about that? The answer will be no. You can imagine what it is like to have that slightly antagonistic state of affairs.

It may result in the serval spraying urine to mark territory. Sometimes they spray urine inside the home because they might be stressed. That is not the sort of experience you want as a home owner. Sometimes serval owners declaw their servals because they want a serval i.e. an exotic pet, but they don't want to be slapped as you see in the video on their hand by their over-sized cat companion because it will hurt. It can draw blood.

You don't want to play with a serval like you would play with your domestic cat companion because they may hurt you. But, that said, they desperately need to be stimulated. There is no greater need to stimulate a cat than a serval. They are smart and active and have heightened wild cat senses. So how do you do it? I just see so many potential and actual problems with having a serval as a pet.

I have a page on keeping servals as pets which may interest anybody who wants to read more about this topic. And lastly, depending upon where you live, you may need a licence to look after a serval in your home. There will be differences between the states in America. In the UK you need a licence. In some US states you won't need the permission of the local authority to keep a serval which may be the case with this woman in the video.