Frank and Louie is the world’s oldest two-faced cat, which is not to say he is deceitful or insincere.
Rather, the fluffy, grey feline with two mouths, two noses and three eyes, turned 12 years old this month, setting the record for “longest surviving Janus cat,” said Sara Wilcox, a Guinness World Records spokeswoman.
The name Janus cat was coined by British zoologist Dr. Karl Shuker, based on the two-faced Roman god of transitions, gates and doorways.
Frank and Louie has a case of craniofacial duplication, an extremely rare congenital condition resulting from a protein with the odd name of sonic hedgehog homolog (SHH).
The disorder, also known as diprosopia, can cause part or all of an individual’s face to be duplicated on its head.
Frank and Louie was born on September 8, 1999 and his remarkable life will be commemorated in Guinness World Records’ new 2012 edition, Sara Wilcox said.
The cat has one brain, so both faces act in unison. Two of his eyes are normal, while the middle eye is larger but doesn’t function.
The cat eats on the right side, using Frank’s face, which is connected to his oesophagus, while Louie’s nose twitches at the same time.
Source: www.reuters.com
