Two-faced cat sets record as oldest living "Janus" cat

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CONWAY: Frank and Louie is the world's oldest two-faced cat, which is not to say he is deceitful or insincere.

Rather, the fluffy, gray feline with two mouths, two noses and three eyes, turned 12 years old this month, setting the record for "longest surviving Janus cat," Sara Wilcox, a Guinness World Records spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The name "Janus cat" was coined by British zoologist Dr. Karl Shuker, based on the two-faced Roman god of transitions, gates and doorways.

Frank and Louie has a case of craniofacial duplication, an extremely rare congenital condition resulting from a protein with the odd name of sonic hedgehog homolog (SHH).

The disorder, also known as diprosopia, can cause part or all of an individual's face to be duplicated on its head. It has been recorded multiple times in the domestic cat (Felis catus), but few of the resulting two-faced kittens survive into adulthood, Wilcox said.

Frank and Louie was born on September 8, 1999 and his remarkable life will be commemorated in Guinness World Records' new 2012 edition, Wilcox said. (Reuters)