Cat Born Without Leg Bones Learns to Walk; Surgery Planned (VIDEO, PHOTO)
A cat who was born without lower leg bones has learned how to walk on his elbows after going through a period of rehabilitation with an animal rights charity group.
Harvey, a four month old cat, was born with an extremely rare condition that meant he did not have the bones in his legs that should connect the upper half of his legs to his paws.
The rare condition is called "radial agenesis" and had prevented Harvey from being able to walk at all in the early months of his life.
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A UK charity, Cats Protection, became aware of Harvey's situation after he was put up for sale by an individual on an internet sale site called Gumtree, which is similar to the US's Craigslist. The cat was bought by someone who then notified the charity, asking for help.
Harvey was handed over to the animal charity where he was immediately started on a rehabilitation program.
According to The Sun newspaper in the UK, owner Liz McCulloch has said, "He's a lovely little thing. Because Harvey was born that way he doesn't know there's anything wrong with him so he runs around on his elbows and happily plays with my other cat and dog."
As Harvey has grown stronger he has learned to use his elbows to move around and play. However, the animal charity has confirmed that the cat is scheduled to undergo surgery to help him in the long term.
According to officials at the charity, surgeons plan to replace his missing bones with metal pins, which he should be able to learn to walk on in the future.
It is believed that it is better for Harvey to have the surgery earlier rather than later, as the stress being put on his body at the moment could result in him developing other problems in later life, such as spinal injury.
After being notified that the suffering animal had been put up for sale on their site and official for Gumtree has since released a statement.
It states: "We have a very strict policy regarding the sale of sick or injured animals on the website. We apologize that someone was able to post an advert for Harvey despite him having medical problems and we will do our best to make sure similar incidents do not occur in the future."
Here is a video of Harvey playing:
