A couple people have asked about VanGogh lately...he's the 15 year old cat I adopted 2 weeks ago. As far as I can tell, he's a Snowshoe cat (I'm going by looks, size and personality, not gonna DNA test him or anything). They were bred from siamese cats born with white feet, hence the name. The white markings are considered a fault in a siamese, but they're the hallmark of the Snowshoe. He's a blue lynx point (blue=gray, lynx means the points have tabby markings). His ears were almost certainly normal when he was born, and the cauliflower ears are from scarred down aural hematomas..most likely he had ear infections that went untreated and he eventually burst a blood vessel in each ear at some point. The minimal space between the cartilage and skin fills with blood (it's very obvious), and even if it's treated the ear will often still look a little deformed.  Ears as severely deformed as his were not treated. The blood will eventually go down but it damages the cartilage and it becomes thick and scarred down. VanGogh can barely move his left ear, only can rotate it slightly, and has fairly low movement in the right ear; his hearing isn't great although I think he can hear a little. It sucks for him when he's interacting with the other cats since they use their ears for communication, and they also make him more prone to ear infections. I did manage to get a better photo of him (I did it by screenshotting a video, but it worked)..he's still too thin but he's starting to fill out and his coat has become really soft in only 2 weeks . And he's still the sweetest boy <3