Floppa: ‘Gosha A Caracal’

Floppa a Caracal with green eyes, a large nose, and big tufted ears caught the attention of Internet users. Moreover, people started using the Big Floppa in memes, images, shirts, and phone apps. Furthermore, he lives in Russia, and basically, she is not a cat she is a Caracal.

A Caracal is characterized by long legs, tufted ears a bit long, a short face, and canine teeth. In April 2018, a videographer from Moscow posted a video of his Cat enjoying his food with the caption “To become a big cat, you have to eat a lot!” From there people found out about Big Floppa the Caracal.

Later, in 2020, he became famous due to his images surfing the internet. Moreover, Reddit posted his image with the caption “Big Floppa” or “Kot Shlyopa.” Furthermore, people named her due to his unusually long ears.

How Gosha was Adopted?

Floppa is a big cat that looks the same as a Lynx. Caracals belong to Africa, Asia, and India but this ‘Gosha’ came into the world on December 21, 2017, in Ukraine. A few months later Gosha was adopted by the Bondarev family in Moscow.

In an interview, Andrei the owner of Gosha recalled how they prepped themselves before adopting him:

“Yelena (her wife) saw Big Floppa named Gosha on the internet and later showed it to me. In the beginning, I thought it was just a random talk to adopt him but later we decided to bring him home. So, we talked to different experts on how to handle wild cats because we don’t want to give up.”

Andrew

Gosha and Friends

After, being dispatched from Ukraine it took Gosha 24 hours to reach Moscow. Moreover, in starting she got scared of everyone and usually hide in a corner. Moreover, he never refuses food.

However, Gosha had two beautiful friends “Matvei” and “Zhora”. In a couple of days, Matvei and Floppa became friends and looked after each other. Currently, Matvei’s age is 12 years old. Zhora ages around 4 years around. However, in the early days, Zhora and Gosha use to ignore each other but later they became best friends as stated by Yelena.    

Gosha’s Favorite Games

Gosha’s always loved toys. Moreover, from his early days, he was attracted to toys and use to run around with them. Moreover, the only issue with Gosha is very hilarious and that comes out to be the litter box. Unfortunately, due to her big size, it’s quite difficult for her but once Yelena said it’s a “routine feline issue”.

Gosha’s Diet

According to Yelena Gosha, he only eats healthy food like turkey, rabbit, chicks, and some vitamins that are necessary for his body.

While describing Gosha’s nature Yelena said:

“Gosha is dominating and regards me as exclusively his human being and no-one else’s. He has quite a canine nature, he is very devoted and doesn’t like to be on his own. He is very cautious with people he doesn’t know.” 

Yelena

Big Floppa and His Big Moods

As stated earlier Gosha is a wild cat so his behavior is angry or rough sometimes. Like when he gets angry he scratches the wall or some board. Fortunately, he doesn’t ruin anything of Yelena and Andrew’s house.

Describing his mood swing Andrew said: “In places, he’s scratched the walls right through to the concrete. During the first year, I used to repair the plaster and patch up the wallpaper, but then I gave up. And the TV is scratched – Gosha jumped on it when he saw some birds on Animal Planet.”

Gosha Getting Famous

Gosha became famous on the internet in early 2020. Moreover, an image circulated on the internet of Gosha with Zhora, both laying in the window. Later, from the internet people used that photo in memes and videos for entertainment purposes. Moreover, the pictures went viral on Twitter and Reddit.

Yelena express her feeling by saying that

“One of my husband’s internet friends who also owns a caracal told us about Gosha’s popularity on the internet. We thought, “Wow, that’s neat!” and continued to post pics of him. Only I really don’t like it when Gosha is used for memes on controversial “topical” political subjects, or memes exhibiting Nazism, racism, homophobia or other offensive content, it’s terrible.”

Yelena

Moreover, to increase the popularity of Gosha some of his supporters ask permission from Gosha’s family to use her face on mugs and some boxes for merchandising. Later, a game came out with Gosha’s picture. It consists of a picture of him and whenever you touch it, he will change position. Fortunately, people liked the game and the feedback was quite good.

One of the users wrote

“It’s a cool game, the content is very interesting and there are even a few screamers. When I clicked on Shlyopa (Floppa) he growled so much and gave me such a fright. All in all, there is everything here and you don’t even have to add anything extra.”

Anonymus

Yelena told that game is trending and we have donations but that’s not enough.

“To show their gratitude, some supporters send us donations, a proportion of which goes towards helping the other cats. But the donations are not enough for Gosha’s upkeep, which costs 20-25,000 rubles ($270-$340) a month and that only covers food and the filler for his litter box.”

Yelena

Is Gosha Different from Normal Cats?

No! Gosha is not different from other cats. He gets vaccination twice a year by a wild cat specialist. Yelena told that “The only difference is his size, so you have to take more care and pay attention more. Accidental injuries you get when, for instance, playing with him are much more serious than from small cats. Of course, the degree of ‘destruction’ of the house also grows in proportion to the size of the cat. As for the rest – a cat is a cat in Africa, too.”

FAQs

Why is it called Floppa?

The name ‘Big Floppa’ came from a Caracal’s large tufted ears. He was named Gosha born on December 21, 2017, in Kyiv, Ukraine. In April 2018, Andrey Bondarev and Elena Bondarev from Moscow adopted Gosha.

Is Big Floppa cat still alive?

Evidence came around that Lil Floppa was killed in the car by Big Floppa.

What is Floppa’s real name?

Floppa’s real name is Gregory Caracal, his birth name is Gregori Alexandrovich Karakal was known as Big Floppa. Moreover, caracal knew as a famous rapper and artist in America.

What does Floppa mean in slang?

In English slang, it means a person who deserts his or her own side in favor of another.’

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