A pet owner in Harrison, Arkansas, got quite the surprise when her feline gave birth to a unique offspring — a two-faced kitten.
Ariel Contreras told NBC affiliate KYTV she was doing laundry when she heard her cat meowing, "and then all of the sudden babies started coming out."
Contreras called out for her husband to help their pregnant cat deliver her brood. When the second kitten came out, they noticed he was different.
"My husband said, ‘honey, it has two heads,’ and I went ’no way!'” Contreras said.
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The condition is called Janus, named after the two-faced Roman god, and is a rare genetic mutation caused by excess protein production while in the womb.
Contreras gave the kitten a Batman-inspired name, calling him Harvey after the fictional two-faced villain in the DC Comics series.
While rare, Janus cats are not unheard of. The cats do, however, have a short life expectancy rate, with most not surviving longer than a few days after birth.
Still, there are exceptions. A two-faced cat named Frank and Louie lived to the ripe old age of 15 and even earned recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world's oldest Janus cat.
Dr. Tim Addis, a veterinarian at Alley Cat Animal Rescue, told KYTV that Harvey has a strong chance of survival since his faces are operating together.
“It has one of everything except for the extra skull," Addis said. "Its odds of making it are just as good as its siblings are if you’re feeding it with a bottle.”
