The cat that had to learn to walk on two legs: Harvey was born without bones in his two front limbs

Harvey the kitten has managed to learn to walk despite being born with bones missing from its front legs

The four-month-old was rescued after it was spotted listed for sale on the Gumtree website by its cruel owner

Harvey is now due to have its missing bones replaced with metal pins thanks to animal charity Cats Protection



Looking at these pictures of Harvey the kitten, you’d think he was distinctly uncomfortable.

But this is actually the best way for the four-month-old rescue cat to get around – and he’s perfectly happy with it.

He was born with bones missing from his front legs, but that has been no handicap for the youngster, who has instead learned to walk on his ‘elbows’ and even move along on his back legs.

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Floppy feline: Four month old rescue kitten Harvey was born with bones missing from his two front legs Resourceful: Harvey's foster carer says the kitten's rare condition doesn't slow it down

Harvey, who has a rare condition called radial agenesis, was spotted when his owner put him up for sale on the online advertising site Gumtree.

An X-ray revealed that Harvey’s ulna and radius bones, which connect the upper half of his front legs to his paws, were missing.

He is now waiting for an operation to replace the bones with metal pins thanks to the efforts of animal charity Cats Protection.

VIDEO Harvey's so cute playing scampering about!



Cruel: The kitten, which suffers with radial agenesis, had been listed for sale on the advertising website Gumtree by its cruel former owner

Operation: Harvey is missing the bones that connect the upper half of the front legs to the paws, but is due to have metal pins fitted as a replacement thanks to animal charity Cats Protection



In the meantime he is enjoying life at the home of his ‘foster carer’ Liz McCulloch, 50, who 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.

‘He’s OK at the moment but if he doesn’t get the operation he’ll start to damage his spine when he gets bigger.’

A well-wisher acquired Harvey from Gumtree in November and handed him in at a Cats Protection branch in Glasgow.

Purr-fect future: The rescue kitten with 'foster owner' Liz McCulloch, who says she has never seen a cat with a condition like Harvey's

'Lovely little thing': Harvey is being looked after by Liz McCulloch, who has been fostering cats for 25 years

Workers, who thought he had simply been born with dislocated legs, took him to a vet, where the X-ray revealed he had radial agenesis, which occurs when an animal’s leg bones fail to develop.

The condition can be corrected by implanting metal pins between the paw and upper bone, but an operation can be carried out only on cats over six months old to give the existing bones time to harden and take the weight of the pins.

Cats Protection has raised more than £3,000 in only three days so Harvey can have the life-changing operation when he is six months old.

Rare condition: Only four cats have been born with radial agenesis in Scotland in the past 30 years



Lorraine Currie, co-ordinator of Cats Protection’s Glasgow branch, said: ‘A friend of the branch spotted him on Gumtree. It said in the advert he had two broken legs but when she got there he had no bones at all. She felt sorry for him and took him home but it became clear he needed a lot of treatment and that’s when we got involved.

‘Once Harvey has had the operation, his future looks very bright.’

A spokesman for Gumtree, which lets sellers post adverts for free, said: ‘We have a very strict policy regarding the sale of sick or injured animals on the website.