He is handsome isn't he!?
I did get him as a kitten, and he was actually a feral kitten.
The woman I was dating at the time lived in Baltimore City, and underneath the deck of the house to the right of her she found a litter of kittens. There are cats EVERYWHERE in that neighborhood. So she kit-napped him and he was probably about 3-5 weeks so we had to dropper-feed him.
And regarding his ear: There is a city program that would take all of the feral cats and fix them, and clip their ear to note that they had been fixed.
She talked to one of the employees, and told him she had taken in Arlo. He offered to take Arlo and fix him free of charge and she let him. So they clipped his ear like they would any other feral cat. I was so angry at the time. She's since long gone back to California from whence she came, and Arlo stayed with me :)