Guinness World Record Holder - Beloved Two-Faced Cat Dies of Cancer at Age 15

A cat named Frank and Louie who was born with two faces, two mouths, two noses and three blue eyes has died at the age of 15.

The Telegram of Worcester reports that 'Frankenlouie' died Thursday at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton.

The cat's owner, Marty Stevens, said veterinarians believe the cause of death was cancer.

The cat's owner, Marty Stevens, said veterinarians believe the cause of death was cancer.
Frank and Louie made it into the 2012 edition of Guinness World Records as the longest-surviving member of a group known as Janus cats, named for a Roman god with two faces.

Janus cats almost never survive, and most have congenital defects.
They usually only live a few days.

A breeder brought the rare feline to Stevens, a vet nurse, to be euthanized in September of 1999.

However Stevens, not believing the cat would survive, decided to take him home with her and care for him.

She fed Frankenlouie using tubes in both mouths, soon realizing that only the 'Frank' side was connected to his esophagus.

He did, however, eat enough for two.

Stevens said her cat quickly developed a strong personality and loved to walk around her neighborhood in North Grafton.

"He’s just so affectionate and sweet he usually wins people over," she told The Telegram-Gazette in 2011.

He functioned as a regular cat.

While blind in his center eye, both his outer eyes worked fine, and while he had two noses and mouths, he had only one brain.

Stevens is now understandably devastated to lose her pet of 15 years.

She said her fell quite ill around Thanksgiving and she took him to the Tuffs University clinic.

The vet told her it was best to euthanize him, because he was in quite a lot of pain.

Stevens says once her sadness passes she wouldn't mind looking for another Janus to bring home with her, just like she did with Frankenlouie in 1999.

"I would love to do it again," she said.

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Meet Frank and Louie, the Two-Faced Cat

In Worcester, Massachusetts, a cat with two names and two faces was born. Meet Frank and Louie. He has two faces, two mouths, three eyes, and there was lots of doubts about his future.

A Veterinarian looked at the kitten and found it to be perfectly healthy with an excellent chance of survival. The Vet was right.

Twelve years after Marty Stevens rescued him from being put to sleep because of his condition, the exotic blue-eyed rag doll cat is not only thriving but has made it into the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records.

He's the longest surviving member of a group known as Janus cats.

, named for a Roman god with two faces. Janus cats almost never survive, and most have congenital defects, including a cleft palate that makes it difficult for them to nurse and often causes them to slowly starve or get milk in their lungs and die of pneumonia. The condition is the result of a genetic defect that triggers excessive production of a certain kind of protein.

"Every day is kind of a blessing; being 12 and normal life expectancy when they have this condition is one to four days," Stevens said, stroking Frank and Louie's soft fur as he sat on her lap purring. "So, he's ahead of the game; every day I just thank God I still have him."

Frank and Louie's breeder had taken him to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, where Stevens was working at the time, to be euthanized when he was just a day old. Stevens offered to take him home, but experts told her not to get her hopes up.

But Frank and Louie did not suffer from most of the common Janus problems. Stevens used feeding tubes to nourish him for three months, hoping that would also save him from the danger of choking on food going down two mouths.

It turned out she didn't have to worry about him choking, because Frank and Louie used just one of his mouths to eat.

"The condition itself is very rare, and I think that the fact that this cat became an adult, a healthy adult, is remarkable," said Dr. Armelle deLaforcade, an Associate Professor at Cummings and head of the Emergency Services Section.



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