Frankenlouie

September 30, 2011 2:51 AM

Two faced cat is a record breaker. Latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records to feature Frank and Louie, a 12-year-old cat with two mouths, two noses and three eyes who survived against huge odds.

Likened to the Roman god Janus, Frank and Louie has survived beyond his expected lifespan.
Other examples of janus cats.

posted by SueDenim (48 comments total)

Frankenlouie is one of the strangest cats I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got two cats wedged into one cat, or why.
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:01 AM on September 30, 2011 [19 favorites]

Ah, but do Frank and Louie smoke cigarettes?
posted by cthuljew at 3:05 AM on September 30, 2011 [6 favorites]

'Oh, what a beautiful cat' and I see a look of horror when they actually see his face."
posted by efalk at 3:40 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh for fuck sakes, no.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:43 AM on September 30, 2011 [4 favorites]

=^...^=
posted by tumid dahlia at 3:47 AM on September 30, 2011 [12 favorites]

One brain or two?
posted by ZaneJ. at 3:56 AM on September 30, 2011

- If the cat can't blink or close the nonfunctional middle eye wouldn't it dry out and get infected? Should it be removed?

- How is the brain affected? Is it one brain, two brains or an amalgamation?
posted by dgaicun at 3:58 AM on September 30, 2011

Also, I shouldn't reveal this under penalty of lawsuit, but Tom Cruise was in fact born with two-faced cat disease and it makes all his babies die.
posted by dgaicun at 4:00 AM on September 30, 2011 [4 favorites]

One brain, and unrelated to conjoined twinning.
posted by dgaicun at 4:16 AM on September 30, 2011

Poor cat.

I will name him George, and I will hug him, and pet him, and squeeze him.
posted by pracowity at 4:25 AM on September 30, 2011 [5 favorites]

Excellent. This was the rather light straw that finally made me download and install the Comment Blocker extension. After many years, I can read online newspapers without getting a brain bleed from the purple ink halfwittery.
posted by tavegyl at 4:43 AM on September 30, 2011

I really want this cat and Chase No Face to hang out. Perhaps there will be face-lending!
posted by palidor at 4:47 AM on September 30, 2011 [5 favorites]

I love the fact that he has two names but only one pronoun.
posted by mippy at 4:52 AM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

Dgaicun, I'm sure you're aware of this because you posted the link, but:

Although classically considered conjoined twinning (which it resembles), this anomaly is not normally due to the fusion or incomplete separation of two embryos. It is the result of a protein called sonic hedgehog homolog (SHH).

Oh my.
posted by Kikujiro's Summer at 4:53 AM on September 30, 2011

AP video on Frank and Louie.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:01 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Intelligent design strikes again!

Poor little furry freak. I'd like to adopt him.
posted by Decani at 5:04 AM on September 30, 2011

Truly a mouse's biggest nightmare.
posted by Cerulean at 5:13 AM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

So what's the deal here, is that cat in pain? How does this type of condition affect quality of life for the animal? I would have just had it put down, seems cruel to keep it alive, at least to me.
posted by IvoShandor at 5:22 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

It looks comfortable and happy. It has enjoyed a dozen years of the pleasure of being alive.
posted by pracowity at 5:27 AM on September 30, 2011 [5 favorites]

Look at that cat. I'm glad it's had a good life so far.
posted by h00py at 5:35 AM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

It warms my heart that he's alive and has a good life but looking at him gives me the heebie-jeebies. Am I the only one?
posted by djeo at 5:46 AM on September 30, 2011

As I get older, I get the heebie-jeebies less and less. We have to be kind. Those cats didn't choose to be conjoined. I'd scritch 'em.
posted by h00py at 5:47 AM on September 30, 2011 [13 favorites]

Indian baby born with two faces 'doing well' one month after birth.
posted by h0p3y at 5:52 AM on September 30, 2011

We have a two-faced cat, though not in the literal sense.
posted by Sir Cholmondeley at 6:12 AM on September 30, 2011 [7 favorites]

Still less of a freakish abomination than pugs.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:31 AM on September 30, 2011 [4 favorites]

So what's the deal here, is that cat in pain? How does this type of condition affect quality of life for the animal? I would have just had it put down, seems cruel to keep it alive, at least to me.

The article doesn't indicate that he's suffering at all. He has two eyes and a mouth that work the way they should, and an owner who feels lucky to have him. So the only reason to put him down would be because he gives people the heebie jeebies, which is not a good or sufficient reason in my book.

Animals, at least the ones that were born disabled, don't deal with disabilities in the way that humans do. They don't compare themselves to other animals or seem to realize their differences. They just adapt and deal and live life on their own terms. I have a congenitally deaf cat and it's been interesting to observe how he manages. He's clued in to a lot of concepts that I wouldn't think he would understand at all, such as understanding that he can get my attention by being verbal, and that the further away from me he is, the harder he has to yell. I don't think he has the slightest idea that he's missing anything. I bet this cat is similarly adapted.
posted by orange swan at 6:39 AM on September 30, 2011 [7 favorites]

So what's the deal here, is that cat in pain? How does this type of condition affect quality of life for the animal? I would have just had it put down, seems cruel to keep it alive, at least to me.

Kill it to be on the safe side, you mean? ;)

There's actually a long discussion to be had about how we should apply utilitarianism to animal lives, given their lack of obvious preferences about so many issues, and the difficulty of ascertaining the significance and subjective value of their positive and negative experiences. I suspect that this is not the place for it.
posted by howfar at 7:03 AM on September 30, 2011

oesophagus!
posted by silby at 7:16 AM on September 30, 2011

The mind boggles.
posted by silby at 7:16 AM on September 30, 2011

Animals, at least the ones that were born disabled, don't deal with disabilities in the way that humans do. They don't compare themselves to other animals or seem to realize their differences. They just adapt and deal and live life on their own terms.

I was chatting with a guy who specializes in both the history of disability and pediatric rehabilitation (so: academic and clinician) and he mentioned how the view of disability has changed as we move into a more technologically based society. Back in the day, when villages needed people to go find firewood, etc., it was a lot easier for someone with a family member who had, for example, Down Syndrome to say, "Okay, you might take a little longer to do some things, but we still have a valuable place for you. Other things need to be done by SOMEONE, and you can do them." The person with Down Syndrome doesn't lag that far behind "regular" folks. Ergo: no real disability, at least in the sense of measuring someone's capabilities against those of others in the society in which they live.

Now, even tasks most of us consider simple require critical thinking or computer skills -- or at least understanding that, in order to do your task, other people have to engage in more complicated tasks. We measure each other by increasingly abstract measures that build on other skills, so it's not as easy to just jump in and help with a new activity. So it's kind of like a digital divide: the difference between "regular" people and people with a disability that affects the way they do or understand something just keeps growing.

But if we find those pockets where we view what people CAN do, the perceived disability fades a little more.
posted by Madamina at 7:19 AM on September 30, 2011 [4 favorites]

=^...^= ?



=^.. ^^.^=

There, I fixed it.
posted by peagood at 7:30 AM on September 30, 2011

"Every day is kind of a blessing; being 12 and normal life expectancy when they have this condition is one to four days," said Stevens. "So, he's ahead of the game; every day I just thank God I still have him."

This mindset has always baffled the shit out of me. Like - you're thanking god that this one cat has survived for so long with this completely jacked-up mutant affliction. With that crediting of deliberate agency, you have to admit that god fucked that cat up deliberately in the first place, and that the only reason it's unusual that this cat is twelve years old is that god kills most of the other cats he fucks up on purpose. It's like saying 'thank god the cancer's in remission!' You realize that based on that system of responsibility, god gave you the cancer, right?
posted by FatherDagon at 7:30 AM on September 30, 2011

The article doesn't indicate that he's suffering at all.

This is why I asked, because that article was woefully incomplete. But that's journalism for you. I figured maybe a mefite might know a bit about this.
posted by IvoShandor at 7:55 AM on September 30, 2011

@FatherDagon - I think for the most part it's just a figure of speech.

I wonder if it has eighteen lives....
posted by zeoslap at 7:56 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

I would pet the kitty.
posted by ersatz at 8:34 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

I would scritch his chins too. But I'd have to screw up my courage a bit, just sayin'.
posted by djeo at 8:38 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

No word fo a lie, when I saw this on the news last night I parsed it's name as "Frankenlouie"
posted by Hoopo at 9:11 AM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

And the record
for the greatest number of faces on a cat
goes to
Frank
And
Louie!!!
posted by BurnChao at 9:25 AM on September 30, 2011

Is he a Birman, I wonder? He looks just like my kitty, but (obviously) with an extra face.
posted by corvine at 9:46 AM on September 30, 2011

posted by Not Supplied at 9:52 AM on September 30, 2011

http://cheezburger.com/View/5258738176
posted by Not Supplied at 9:53 AM on September 30, 2011

Indian baby born with two faces 'doing well' one month after birth.

She died.

Cleft palate caused difficulty feeding her under village conditions. A poor diet of bottle-fed sugar solution and diluted milk, allowed to drip down her throat because she could not suck properly because of the cleft palate, weakened her condition, and vomiting and infection started. Admission to hospital was delayed by discussion (including taking her back home from hospital) among her extended family and her village's headman. Finally her parents, alarmed at her illness and dehydration, defied her other relatives and took her back to hospital, where under proper medical treatment including antibiotic and a saline drip she started to improve, and stopped vomiting, and started drinking milk and defecating normally; but 6 hours later, at two months old to the day, she died of a heart attack

posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 10:09 AM on September 30, 2011

I have no idea how these people got two cats wedged into one cat, or why.

Have you seen Fringe?
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:19 AM on September 30, 2011

My God, it's The Thing!
posted by brundlefly at 11:46 AM on September 30, 2011

peagood: "There, I fixed it."

Surely the correct emoticon should have precisely 3 eyes, not 2 or 4!
Tangent: I've actually been using 3-eyed emoticons for years. In decreasing order of usefulness:

"squee": ^_^_^
"boggle": O_o_0
"sigh": -_-_-;
"squinchy face": >_v_<

Originally, they were meant to represent aliens, but you could easily make them cats by adding whiskers: =^_^_^=
Or, if you prefer noses to mouths: =^.^.^=

The extra mouth and eye actually serve a semantic purpose.
In the same way that "lolol" is an intensified form of "lol", O_o_0 is an intensified form of O_o; it conveys at least 50% more boggledness than the standard emoticon.

Similarly, while we're on the topic of punctuation-based representations of cats with congenital abnormalities, a friend and I developed a family of emoticons based on the cyclopic kitten, Cy:

"happy/contented cy": o)
"exasperated/nonplussed cy": o|
"sad cy": o(

These are useful because "cy" and "sigh" are homophones.
The standard "sigh" emoticon (-_-;) only has one valence: exasperated/resigned.
In contrast, o) could convey a "contended sigh", for example.

Arctangent: I think both Frank and Louie and Cy are adorable. Biology is strange and awe-inspiring!
posted by omnomnOMINOUS at 12:07 PM on September 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

That two-faced baby is no big deal, but the one farther down the story with a parasitic twin attached? That's messed up... you know, think of the children and all that, but holy crap.

This makes me think of a story a co-worker told me about seeing his sister slowly and painfully dying in the ICU, and a veteran nurse came over to him and said, "The longer I work here, the more faith I have in God..." He didn't hit her, somehow.

Really, this kind of thing is just more circumstantial evidence against any kind of divine plan or loving god.

Cute kitty.
posted by Huck500 at 12:19 PM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

I am sorry to hear that Lali Singh did not make it.

But good for Marty, the vet tech who adopted F&L! It would be great if he could make movies for kids (and grownups!) to show them that funny-looking animals are cute and furry, not mean and scary...and the same goes for funny-looking a/o disabled people.
posted by skbw at 7:40 PM on October 2, 2011

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing: "AP video on Frank and Louie."

Listen to him growl!
posted by deborah at 10:05 PM on October 4, 2011