Big Slap & mdash;karakal, who lives in a Moscow family. It has gained popularity among Russian and English-speaking users of the network in 2019-2020. Since then, the animal has regularly become the hero of various memes and flash mobs.
What is known about the Slap?
Big Slap (also known as “big Russian cat”) born in December 2017 in a wild cat kennel in Kiev. He was called Gosha. When the animal was two months old, he started living in Moscow in the family of Andrey and Elena Bondarev.
Despite the fact that the 30-kilogram Slap is called the “big Russian cat”, he is actually a caracal, or steppe lynx. At the same time, several generations of his ancestors were born in captivity, and Gosha himself has the habits of domestic cats. For example, he is accustomed to the tray.
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Why is Gosha called a Slap?
Initially, Karakal Gosha found fame on the English-language Internet. Users called him Floppa or Big Floppa (from the English — «slap»). In the future, Russian-speaking subscribers adapted this nickname, calling the animal a Slap.
How did Spanking become popular?
In December 2019, the owners of Gosha published a photo on their Instagram page, on which the caracal is lying on the windowsill together with the cat of the Meinkun breed Zhora. The picture was liked by the users of the network and formed the basis of several memes. After learning about this, the owners of the caracal continued to post pictures of their pet. To date, Gosha’s Instagram page has over 111 thousand subscribers.
In May 2021, Runet users staged a flash mob, in which they sent photos of Flip-flops to their parents with the words: “Look, this is a Flip-Flop, a big Russian cat. How does he look to you?». Funny answers of relatives were then published in various public sites.
In 2020, Gosha lovers received permission from the owners of the animal to use its image for various products. Then cups, figurines and cubes with a Flip-flop went on sale. In the spring of 2021, a game appeared in the Google Play store that includes photos of Gosha.