My son's new cat. He was dumped & abandoned at a vetinary surgery 3 months before......thrown in the door, in fact. They thought he was 3 years old and a Maine Coon cross bred.....he is almost twice the size of other cats, although these images do not really depict this. Ollie's coat was in such a bad condition it was all shaved off, and revealed cigarette burn scars on his head. He had considerable damage to his spine area where his tail joined his body, they thought consistent with him having been swung around by his tail. His tail is constantly twitching and when he is lying on his side it is usually straight up right angled to is body. Also some damage to his jaw and mouth area......see later updates.
Ollie stayed with me while my son was away for 2 weeks, and I took most of these while having a play fight with him.
UPDATE...July 2008. Ollie is fine.....he wasn't over friendly when my son first had him 16 months ago.....due to being abused by the people who abandoned him (at least it was with a vet!) The vet said a broken tooth he has could only have been caused by a kick to the mouth...so it's not surprising he was wary of people. Anyway, he is now much happier, and affectionate....although only up to a point with everyone except my son, who he adores. A one man cat!
UPDATE 2010 - My son & Ollie have now permanently moved in with us. The damage to Ollie's mouth, caused by the kicks, was much worse than previously thought. Our vet discovered that 6 more teeth, including one of his front incisor fangs, were broken below gum level, and were now rotten and had to be extracted. He is very happy with us and loves our big garden, although he can only go out when one of us can watch him.....those bunny rabbits across the road are too much of an attraction, and not risking him crossing the road after having lost Fluff that way.
Our son moved out in 2013, but was unable to keep pets in his new home.......so Ollie stayed with us.
UPDATE March 2016......Sadly Ollie died peacefully on 5/3/16. He had been suffering with pancreatis for several years, but treating with steroids kept it manageable. However these can have a side effect of arthritis, which he developed in his legs about a year ago, but prescribed pain killers helped a lot. Our vet thought he was several years older than the estimate of the vet who treated him when he was rescued in 2006. So we think he was 17-18 years old now.