Here's one instance when being two-faced isn't a bad thing, especially when it lands you in the Guinness records for defying death.
Frank and Louie is one cool cat, born in Massachusetts 12 years with separate faces and given little chance of surviving beyond a few hours. He actually set the record for longest-living Janus cat -- named for the Roman god with two faces -- back in 2006, when he lived in Ohio, but he's back in the news today, thanks to an Associated Press pickup ("Mass. cat with 2 faces lives 12 years, sets record") of a Worcester Telegram & Gazette feature on this amazing feline ("Two-faced cat earns Guinness record").
CAPTIONBy Steven Senne, AP
Regardless, this cat will always be a great story. Every day is a record for Frank (left) and Louie (right), a Virgo, whose recent birthday was Sept. 8.
He has two mouths, two noses and two normal eyes. Between them is a larger, non-functioning eye, which "was the first eye to open up when he was two days old so I had a little Cyclops for a while," said his owner, Marty Stevens, who has owned him since a breeder brought him to Tufts Veterinary Clinic to be euthanized when he was a day old, the T&G writes. She was a veterinary nurse at Tufts at the time and offered to take him home.
But F& L has only one head, one brain and one mouth connected to his stomach, which eliminates any possible conflicts between competing finicky tastes.
AP explains the F&L's rarity and Stevens' determination to save him:
Janus cats almost never survive, and most have congenital defects, including a cleft palate that makes it difficult for them to nurse and often causes them to slowly starve or get milk in their lungs and die of pneumonia. The condition is the result of a genetic defect that triggers excessive production of a certain kind of protein.
But Frank and Louie did not suffer from most of the common Janus problems. Stevens used feeding tubes to nourish him for three months, hoping that would also save him from the danger of choking on food going down two mouths.
It turned out she didn't have to worry about him choking, because Frank and Louie used just one of his mouths to eat.
Stevens told AP that F&L is "very, very laid back, not afraid of people, very friendly and he's actually more of a dog than a cat," Stevens said. "He walks on a leash, he goes right in the car; he loves car rides."
Viewed from either side, F&L looks normal. It's only when regarded head on that his uniqueness comes into focus, often unsettling strangers, Stevens said.
"He's just so affectionate and sweet he usually wins people over," she told the Worcester paper.
kinda sad tho if you think about it
