Lucas, a former pet of the day and now a resident at the RB, was a rescue with a similar history. He was living in a house with 10 other cats, and pretty much lived in the bathroom of the house. He didn't get anough food, his coat was dull and greasy, in general he was a mess, Health-wise. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) had a cat who needed a playmate (The death of his playmate is how we started dating, but that's another story entirely) and the woman who had Lucas offered him to Jen as a solution to everyone's problems.

When we first got Lucas home, he was a handful. He hissed at Pippen, didn't come out, showing all the signs of a cat who besides being in a new home, was never treated rght in the home he came from. After about three days of him hiding or attacking anything that came near him out of fear, I decided to deal with it.....I found him, dragged him out of his hiding place, (lost some flesh off my arm in the process) and held him in his "comfy towel" in my lap while I scritched him. After about a week of this, he started to realize the not everyone in the world was his enemy. He started playing with Pippen, not fighting with him, and basically had a great life until we had to put him to sleep because of cancer. Rescuing a cat from a bad place is worth it, and has great rewards (even for someone like me, who is mildly allegic to felines). Of the three cats we have had, lucas became the most "normal " cat of the three, despite his rough start.