PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – You’ve heard of a cat having nine lives. Well there may be one living on the Suncoast with eighteen: a kitten born with one body but two faces.
It's called a Janus cat, and it is exceptionally rare. The family of the kitten says they are doing everything they can to give their new friend a fighting chance.
Recently, Nash Hand and his wife Amanda Forsythe saw a show about a cat with two faces. “I looked at her and said wouldn't that be weird if that happened to us?" says Nash.
With an expecting momma cat named Nene in the house, it was a joking passing thought. Well, after a double take Monday that thought became all too real. "(She said) ‘what are you talking about? What do you mean two faces?’ I said it has two faces! This cat has two faces!"
That was when they met the kitten they named Harvey Dent, after the Batman character who developed the “Two-face” personality.
The scientific term is diprosopus, and nicknamed the Janus cat after the mythical Roman god with two faces. "They simultaneously work together, the two faces. When he eats on one side it looks like he is eating on the other. When he meows it comes out of both sides," says Amanda.
Not knowing what to do, Nash and Amanda took to Craigslist looking for help. The response they got was anything but. “That I should put it down, that it is an abomination, that I am an evil person because I would let such a thing live like that. It's a beast because it's a black cat with two faces," says Amanda.
But they did get in touch with Dr. Greg Fluharty with the Animal Clinic in Port Charlotte, who did an exam. "Lungs sound normal. Respiration and heart rate were normal for a kitten that age."
Another good sign is that Nene has taken to her little boy.
More tests with a vet neurologist are scheduled for this week. "It's going to give them some information so they can make the right choices," says Dr. Fluharty.
There are some tough choices for the young family, too. "We have our bills and our expenses and our budget. It is something we are afraid of," says Nash.
However they say Harvey has heart, and they are determined to give him a fighting chance. "We are definitely not going to kill it. I am not going to let somebody tell me that it needs to be done. It shouldn't be killed just because it is a little different."
Though the odds of survival are against them, some Janus cats can survive. One recently made the Guinness Book of World Records last year after turning 12 years old.
