Kitten born with 2 faces overcomes incredible odds

Katie Mather
Updated ·2 min read

While everybody loves a baby animal popping up in their newsfeed, Duo the kitten went viral for a completely different reason: She was born with two faces.

Duo has a rare condition called diprosopus or craniofacial duplication, which means she has one head, two mouths, two noses and four eyes. It's considered to be a subgroup of conjoined twinning and is not just limited to animals — the odds of a human being born with it are one in 15 million.

Cats born with diprosopus are referred to as "Janus cats" (after the two-faced Roman god), and it's rare for them to live longer than a couple of days. Duo is 4 months old, but the most famous such cat is Frankie and Louie, who lived for 15 years and set the Guinness World Record for being the world's longest-surviving Janus cat.

California veterinarian Dr. Ralph Tran adopted Duo when she was only a few weeks old after her mother rejected her. He spent weeks feeding her with a tube and a syringe because it was difficult for her to eat on her own. According to his interview featured in the Inside Edition video above, it was harder for Duo to learn how to eat independently because her central eyes are blind, and there were times when both of her mouths wanted to be fed at the same time.

But now Duo is able to eat with both of her mouths.

"As soon as she sees her food bowl, she runs to it and starts purring the entire time she eats," Tran told Inside Edition.

As she gets older, it's likely Duo will need surgery to remove her middle eyes. But other than her deformity, Tran insists she's just as sweet and playful as any other kitten.

"She's learned to play with toys, play with cats and interact with me," Tran said. "She always comes and follows me and waits for me to pet her and rub her face and give her scratches."

Duo is still much smaller than other kittens her age, but her progress has stunned Tran.

"She may have her disability, she may have her challenges, but she loves life and she loves to play," he told Inside Edition. "She takes whatever's thrown at her and makes the best of it."

Watch the full video above to learn more about Duo.