RIP, Frank and Louie
December 6, 2014 2:44 PM Subscribe
Frank and Louie, the world's oldest Janus, or two-faced cat, has passed away in Worcester, Mass at the age of 15. Since the normal lifespan for such a cat is one to three days, it is safe to say that he (they?) more than beat the odds. There's another video in the Boston Globe article.
It kind of sounds like the "Louie" face had no consciousness of its own (and no esophagus or lower jaw) but either way that's an amazing survival story. Kudos to Frank and Louie's savior and caretaker.
posted by Curious Artificer at 2:51 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Curious Artificer at 2:51 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
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Frank was obviously the brains of the operation.
posted by localroger at 2:55 PM on December 6, 2014 [16 favorites]
Frank was obviously the brains of the operation.
posted by localroger at 2:55 PM on December 6, 2014 [16 favorites]
15 years is quite a run for ANY cat. I'm glad Frank & Louie had such a good human with them for so many years. My condolences to Ms Stevens on her loss.
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posted by hippybear at 3:00 PM on December 6, 2014 [6 favorites]
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posted by hippybear at 3:00 PM on December 6, 2014 [6 favorites]
Frank was obviously the brains of the operation.
Louie was just an accessory.
posted by Thing at 3:03 PM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
Louie was just an accessory.
posted by Thing at 3:03 PM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
Curious Artificer, the faces shared a single brain, so there was only one consciousness. If you watch the video, you can see the cat turning its head from side to side so it could get a view of things ahead of it, so the eyes of both faces were linked to the brain. It wasn't one head and a non-functioning siamese twin.
posted by tavella at 3:13 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by tavella at 3:13 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Well, F/L wasn't a siamese cat....
posted by hippybear at 3:17 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:17 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
There's no reason to grieve
The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves
Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow
posted by jjray at 3:22 PM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves
Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow
posted by jjray at 3:22 PM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
Frank was obviously the brains of the operation.
Louie was just an accessory.
I like to think they did the Pinky and The Brain act every night.
posted by Artw at 3:25 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Louie was just an accessory.
I like to think they did the Pinky and The Brain act every night.
posted by Artw at 3:25 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
One is a genius, the other's insane.
I love how the lyrics don't say which one is which.
posted by hippybear at 3:29 PM on December 6, 2014 [16 favorites]
I love how the lyrics don't say which one is which.
posted by hippybear at 3:29 PM on December 6, 2014 [16 favorites]
The article says one brain, two eyes, and one mouth. So it mostly seems like one normal head with a lot of useless extra parts tacked on. It didn't talk about the noses though. Maybe he could smell out of both sets of noses?
posted by dgaicun at 3:43 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by dgaicun at 3:43 PM on December 6, 2014
Also what's up with that gross gooey center eye? They never had the good taste to sew that eyesore thing shut?
posted by dgaicun at 3:45 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by dgaicun at 3:45 PM on December 6, 2014
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posted by Smart Dalek at 3:54 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:54 PM on December 6, 2014
Aww, bonus kitty!
posted by you're a kitty! at 3:59 PM on December 6, 2014 [10 favorites]
posted by you're a kitty! at 3:59 PM on December 6, 2014 [10 favorites]
Also what's up with that gross gooey center eye? They never had the good taste to sew that eyesore thing shut?
My definition of good taste does not include performing unnecessary surgery on a healthy animal in order to avoid the possibility of some minor human squeamishness. I'm quite glad Frank and Louie's owner seems to have shared this view, for his sake.
posted by howfar at 4:09 PM on December 6, 2014 [28 favorites]
My definition of good taste does not include performing unnecessary surgery on a healthy animal in order to avoid the possibility of some minor human squeamishness. I'm quite glad Frank and Louie's owner seems to have shared this view, for his sake.
posted by howfar at 4:09 PM on December 6, 2014 [28 favorites]
The sonic hedgehog gene strikes again. I've retained more knowledge about diprosopus than I ever would have expected thanks to Metafilter's most infamous and secret deleted comment.
posted by painquale at 4:20 PM on December 6, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by painquale at 4:20 PM on December 6, 2014 [5 favorites]
Do a few stitches really qualify as surgery?
I dunno, grodyness aside, are those soft tissues supposed to be exposed to the air without normal maintenance functioning (lubrication, blinking, etc)? Seems like an infection risk. It doesn't look healthy anyway.
posted by dgaicun at 4:32 PM on December 6, 2014
I dunno, grodyness aside, are those soft tissues supposed to be exposed to the air without normal maintenance functioning (lubrication, blinking, etc)? Seems like an infection risk. It doesn't look healthy anyway.
posted by dgaicun at 4:32 PM on December 6, 2014
I'm sure if it were a health issue to the cat, it would have been taken care of well before it died at age 15.
Maybe it's best to just let cats born this way, if they survive beyond early infancy, to have their form intact without human opinion coming into play?
posted by hippybear at 4:40 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Maybe it's best to just let cats born this way, if they survive beyond early infancy, to have their form intact without human opinion coming into play?
posted by hippybear at 4:40 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
. .
posted by harrietthespy at 5:03 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by harrietthespy at 5:03 PM on December 6, 2014
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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 5:18 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 5:18 PM on December 6, 2014
are those soft tissues supposed to be exposed to the air without normal maintenance functioning
The blind eye lasted 15 years. While it was malformed and incapable of sight it was probably intact enough not to be "gooey" and properly lubricated, etc. or it would not have lasted so long.
posted by localroger at 5:48 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
The blind eye lasted 15 years. While it was malformed and incapable of sight it was probably intact enough not to be "gooey" and properly lubricated, etc. or it would not have lasted so long.
posted by localroger at 5:48 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
The blind eye could blink, anyway, so there's that.
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posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:21 PM on December 6, 2014
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posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:21 PM on December 6, 2014
It's really funny to see this here, and also popping up in the trending events section on Facebook. Frank and Louie would pop up in our local press from time to time, but I never thought their story would get this big.
People locally seem to have been way more affected by the loss than I would've ever guess. It's not Lil Sebastian levels, but...
posted by rollbiz at 7:26 PM on December 6, 2014 [4 favorites]
People locally seem to have been way more affected by the loss than I would've ever guess. It's not Lil Sebastian levels, but...
posted by rollbiz at 7:26 PM on December 6, 2014 [4 favorites]
Do a few stitches really qualify as surgery?
I love all the uninformed speculation about this, but given the owner's and the cat's longtime close association with Tufts Veterinary Clinic and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, probably the best such facility in this country, I feel like they had this under control.
She seems like a really lovely owner with a generous heart. Would that all domestic animals, however funny looking, had such good homes.
posted by Miko at 8:25 PM on December 6, 2014 [9 favorites]
I love all the uninformed speculation about this, but given the owner's and the cat's longtime close association with Tufts Veterinary Clinic and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, probably the best such facility in this country, I feel like they had this under control.
She seems like a really lovely owner with a generous heart. Would that all domestic animals, however funny looking, had such good homes.
posted by Miko at 8:25 PM on December 6, 2014 [9 favorites]
Wormtown rocks. Rest easy, cat(s).
posted by vrakatar at 9:39 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by vrakatar at 9:39 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
I say I say I say!
- What do you say?
My cat has two noses!
- How does he smell?
Rather well, actually!
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:44 PM on December 6, 2014
- What do you say?
My cat has two noses!
- How does he smell?
Rather well, actually!
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:44 PM on December 6, 2014
omg imagine both of those faces lick-cleaning all night long. i sometimes wake at like three in the morning with ONE cat lick-cleaning itself, slup-slup-slup-slup-slup, for HOURS, slup-slup-slup-slup, and here it would be in stereo, though would presumably only last half as long.
slup-slup, slup-slup, slup-slup
Godspeed lovely double-face kitty, I'm glad you were looked after.
posted by turbid dahlia at 10:49 PM on December 6, 2014 [4 favorites]
slup-slup, slup-slup, slup-slup
Godspeed lovely double-face kitty, I'm glad you were looked after.
posted by turbid dahlia at 10:49 PM on December 6, 2014 [4 favorites]
The Tufts Veterinary School in Grafton is one of the best in the country. The vets at their hospitals would know if the eye needed to be removed, at least as well as an Internet commenter would, if not more.
Glad you had a good long run, Frank and Louie.
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posted by ignignokt at 5:37 AM on December 7, 2014 [2 favorites]
Glad you had a good long run, Frank and Louie.
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posted by ignignokt at 5:37 AM on December 7, 2014 [2 favorites]
Life imitates art. (Drawn two years before Frank and Louie were born.)
posted by Hactar at 9:00 AM on December 7, 2014
posted by Hactar at 9:00 AM on December 7, 2014
Life imitates art.
Louie always hated Frank's smoking habit, though.
posted by localroger at 1:08 PM on December 7, 2014
Louie always hated Frank's smoking habit, though.
posted by localroger at 1:08 PM on December 7, 2014
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