You don’t know it yet, but you’re already in love with Jesperpus the Norwegian adventure cat. That’s because Jesperpus (pronounced YES-pair-poose), can do everything from swim to hike to climb mountains, and even run cross-country along with his owner as she skis. Also, he looks like this:
Jesperpus (or just “Jesper”) belongs to a Norwegian woman named Aina Stormo, who takes the forest-friendly feline on almost all of her trips through mother nature. In an exchange with National Geographic, Stormo said that she trained Jesperpus to do this by taking him out with her for trips on a leash beginning when he was very young. She says that by doing this, “he got used to [being] with us for outdoor activities in the winter before he experienced the summer.”
In the above video, we see Jesperpus and Stormo on one of their more relaxed jaunts through the forest (Jesperpus can reach up to 30 mph when he’s running), near the town of Hedmark, in Norway. Jesperpus is behaving as a skijoring (SKEE-jore-ing), or “an animal or vehicle pulling a skier,” and when he becomes tired or cold, he simply jumps up on Stormo’s shoulder and rides shotgun.
Jesperpus is also—of course—a rising internet sensation, with hundreds of thousands of views on his YouTube videos, 16,000 followers on Instagram, and 40,000 likes on his Facebook page. But despite his stardom, Stormo says that “he will always give you good company.” And some incredibly photogenic poses.
What do you think about Jesperpus and Stormo? Are you ready to take your cat out in the snow on a leash now, or are you sane? And would you like to see him wearing some of that sweet 3D-printed battle armor for cats? Let us know in the comment section below!
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Images: National Geographic, Jesperpus
