• Two-faced kitten born in Georgia

By Becky Holland

CNHI News Service

ELLAVILLE, Ga. — Dolores Phillips has a new kitten. Her name?

How about Two-Faced?

Actually, Phillips got a little more than she bargained for when her pet cat, Sassy, gave birth to her second litter of kittens recently.

One of the kittens was born with two faces.

Only about one in a million cats are born with two heads. The deformity, however, is more common among other animals, especially snakes and turtles, a quick search on the Internet revealed.

This is how the strange story unfolded: “My daughter (Beverly Aldridge) called me on her cell phone and said that she thought Sassy had given birth to the kittens. And then she said, that there was something weird about one of them. I was like, ‘what?’ She said that one of them was born with two faces. I didn’t believe her. She tried to take a picture with her cell phone and send it to me.”

Holding up the less than palm-sized kitten, which was wrapped in a towel, Phillips said, “We weren’t sure it would live until I got back, but it did, and sure enough, there are two faces.”

While Phillips has taken to the kitten, the new pet's mother hasn’t.

“I am having a hard time getting it to eat, and the mother doesn’t want anything to do with it, and the other kittens push it away.”

The veterinarian said tests could be run, but they would be expensive, she said.

“I hope it lives, and I really want it to have a good life ... I am going to do my best to make sure it lives, if possible.”