Here are some pictures of a caracal living in a couple’s home with two domestic cats one of which is a Maine Coon. You can see that these two cats are very friendly with each other (and also with the black domestic cat). It is very unusual to see photographs like this. All the photos are by Andrey Bondarev/Caters News. Many thanks. Nice work.
CAN CARACALS BE PETS – ASSOCIATED PAGE.
NOTE: ON PHONES, SCROLL THE IMAGES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT WITH YOU FINGER.
Those claws 
Gregory and Maine Coon 
Caracal snuggles up to domestic cat Gregory belly up like a domestic cat My Maine Coon buddy
Wild cats as pets?
There is no technical reasons why these cats can’t be friends but there are moral and legal reasons why they should not be friends. The first is that caracals should not be pets. They are unsuited to the role. Of course it depends on the person but they should expect some difficulties. In this instance the caracal, Gregory, lives with Andrey and Elena. We don’t know where they are. It is possibly Russia. We don’t know how they (human and caracal) get on together. We are told that Gregory can be ‘pretty possessive at mealtime’. I can imagine what that means: aggression and it might be a bit scary. And look at those claws. A lot of people who own medium-sized wild cat species as pets declaw them. Not good. Actually bloody awful.
The second reason why caracals should not be pets is because it is bad for conservation. If self-indulgent people fancy keeping an exotic wild animal as a pet it must mean that somewhere a caracal cub or a kitten of another wild cat species is going to be taken from her mother in the wild and brought to the West or the Middle East. The mother might be killed and the kitten will be semi-domesticated to live in captivity in an unnatural environment for the rest of their life.
Wild cat species as pets cannot be allowed to be free because if they are, they’ll be shot by someone or they’ll terrify the neighbourhood.
So you hurt conservation, take a kitten from her mother, kill the mother, encourage more of the same, and become another person who doesn’t give a shit about conservation. You’re just being self-indulgent. That’s the moral issue.
Legal issues
In developed countries there’ll be legal issues too. Inevitably there are laws about owning wild species because they are potentially dangerous. You’ll have to tick all the legal boxes and be prepared for wild cat pee on the walls of your home.
Viewpoint
I accept that many people will have less strident views to mine. I am a purist. I follow the PETA mantra (except for their ideas about feral cat euthanasia). Caracals as pets is using a wild animal as human entertainment. Animals are not ours to use and abuse. I respect other people’s views.
