Amazing cat born with two faces!

[Becknutt]

There's a saying that cats have nine lives, but there's one in America with two faces.

Lil'Bit was born around seven months ago in the state of Arizona, and at first he wasn't expected to stay alive.
But his owner took extra special care of him, and now Lil'Bit is doing really well.
He has three eyes, two mouths, two noses and one pair of ears and some experts think he may even have two brains as well.

Sometimes one of Lil'Bit's faces will be asleep, while the other is still awake.
The cat's owner told a newspaper: "When I picked Lil'Bit up I suddenly spotted that he had two faces. I was so shocked that I nearly dropped him.
"I called a kitten rescue service and they told me not to expect him to survive. But I didn't see why he shouldn't be given the chance to live. Everything is possible."

 

[XxMontanaxX]

:shock:Whoooa

Poor kitty, I hope he lives a happy life.

 

[Becknutt]

It sounds like his owner is trying to provide him..or should I say them the best life possible. I would love to see this this little guy.

 

[~Bracon~]

wow thats amazing

 

[TK Bunnies]

WOW!! So how old is he??

I've seen a cat with two faces before on the news, but it died a couple hours after it was born!

 

[undergunfire]

Where in Arizona? I must meet this cat :shock:!

 

[TinysMom]

We had one born like that years and years ago (pre 1996) and it only lived a very short time - and then only because we were keeping it warm and helping it eat.

It would've been sometime between 1992 and 1995 (thinking of where we lived at the time).

I hate to say this - but I was sort of relieved when it passed away because things like that sorta freak me out. It only lived a couple of days if I remember right - Art & I were talking about this tonight after I told him about the picture and he reminded me of our cat like that.

We had the mom neutered shortly after that....

Peg

Edited to add: We did not take pictures of it - partly because it freaked me out so much. The cat had the same coloring as this one too....which is sorta freaky.

 

[NZminilops]

I find this sort of thing so interesting! This happens when an egg being fertilized is being split down the middle (that would make identical twins) and it doesn't split completely. So really it's sort of two cats stuck together rather than one cat with two heads.

This happens with humans too, better known as Siamese twins (which I don't think is the politically correct term any longer) which is normally more of a complete split but still attached at the head/torso/hips/back etc. Or you can have one twin who dominates so strongly that the other ends up being parasitic, i.e it doesn't develop all the way and maybe is only a shriveled set of limbs sticking off the other twin.

 

[Leaf]

TK Bunnies wrote:

WOW!! So how old is he??

I've seen a cat with two faces before on the news, but it died a couple hours after it was born!

It sounds like the cat is around 7 months old which is somewhat suprising.



And here I thought I had a unique cat because he was born with no eyeballs!

 

[Leaf]

Do any of you recall seeing the cyclopse kitten that was in the news a while back?



http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/cyclopes.asp

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

Things like this gross me out too! The cyclops kitten: WOW! I couldn't even look at him and then I did. FREAKY! I would just have to take it somewhere because I wouldn't be able to look at it. Sorry to say that. but things like that freak me out! I hope bunnies aren't born like that!

 

[Sayuri]

This happens in people too - it is baically caused by poor cell division in the early stages of development. They were basically in the process of become 2 cats but at too late a stage and so were fused together. The reason they usually die is that the additional cat, in this case, is sort of a parasite and so the body cant sustain it properly.

I watched a programme recently about a little girl who had this happen to her, they said the same thing about her sister, that she would seem to be awake and have some qualities that demonstrated she may be aware etc but the doctors couldnt think or probe into it too deeply as they had to remove the head in order for the little girl to live and in doing so kill the extra head. - the parasite head would never have been a baby, its development ended early on for whatever reason and would have been absorbed if it hadnt have been attached to the other twin. They actually believe that most people actually start of in the very early stages as twins but only one person makes it through early development

This kitten is totally fused together with its brother so who knows what the future holds for it. I hope he lives a happy life.

 

[~BunBuns~]

Hope the kitty lives a happy life!:biggrin2: