We all know that the beloved pooches that we keep at home now were once descended from wolves but it’s not every day that someone actually goes to the source in a manner of speaking.
But that’s what one Russian family did when they welcomed a wolf cub into their home in May 2017.
Watch the video of their wolf pet below.
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Video credit: Rumble
Ivan Lebedev, 46, and daughter Alexandra having been raising the wolf, named Seryi, despite the tight confines of their studio apartment.
Seryi was less than a month old when farmers in the Astrakhan region of Russia stumbled upon him in a wolves’ lair. Ivan didn’t think twice about buying the cub and has even trained Seryi so that he can open windows and turn on light switches!
Ivan, a massage therapist, said: “I think the main difficulty for me right now with handling him is the walks.
“He needs two really long walks a day and you cannot try and fool him, so no matter how tired we are we have to take him out.”
Because he’s a wolf, Seryi needs to eat roughly 1.2kg of meat each day. But he also loves cookies.
Before Seryi came in, Ivan already had two hunting dogs. Although one would think that this would have given Ivan the experience needed to deal with a wolf, he reveals that raising a wild animal is a whole different challenge.
He explained: “Wolves are very different from dogs, where a dog will ask a wolf will demand.
“But you should not let him do whatever he wants as he will feel like you are not strong enough to be a leader of the pack.
“However, most of the time he just behaves as a normal big dog would.”
According to Ivan, Seryi sees him and Alexandra as the pack leaders while the other dogs are on the same level as the wolf.
Despite Seryi being well-behaved, they tend to keep him away from smaller dogs during walks, just in case.
But even with the added challenges, Ivan wouldn’t give Seryi up for anything, adding: “This wolf is a member of our family and all people who know our family loves Seryi.”
Replaced!