Plenty of people would let a cat sit in their lap, but few would let a cougar do the same thing.

Mario Infanti sees no difference, though, and it’s not strange to see the Cape Coral, Florida resident curled up on his couch with Sasha, his pet cougar, watching television.

Infanti and his wife, Lenore, got Sasha when she was just a kitten, and have forgone starting a family of their own in order to take care of the substantial feline, spending thousands on her upkeep.

While some may think it unfair to keep a large animal like Sasha cooped up in a house, Mario doesn’t see it that way. He feels that by keeping the feline as a pet, he’s protecting her from hunters and other predators she’d come across in the wild.