Eric Pfeiffer

He’s just one cat, but “Frank and Louie” has two faces, three eyes, two noses and two mouths. He’s also a happy and healthy “Janus cat” that just set the record for the longest known living cat with his condition. 

Marty Stevens rescued Frank and Louie from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, where the newborn kitten was scheduled to be euthanized. The planned procedure was at the time seen as an act of mercy, as most cats with his condition do not survive more than a few days after birth and can suffer from a number of terrible conditions, including starvation and pneumonia. 

But Stevens said she insisted on taking Frank and Louie home after it was discovered he did not suffer from any of the typical ailments associated with Janus cats, named after the Roman god with two faces. Now, at age 12, Frank and Louie has been entered into the Guinness Book or World Records as the oldest-living Janus cat on record:

“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.”

“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.

Stevens says Frank and Louie’s unusual story goes beyond his medical condition, calling him “more of a dog than a cat,” who loves to be walked on a leash and take rides in Stevens’ car. And most importantly, Frank and Louie isn’t bothered by his condition. Like other blue-eyed rag doll breeds, he is friendly, enjoying laying in his owner’s lap and interacting with other people. 

A calico cat named Willow who disappeared from her Colorado home five years ago has been miraculously found on a Manhattan street. Animal Care & Control Executive Director Julie Bank says they have no idea how Willow made the 1,600 mile journey.

And if her mysterious journey wasn’t interesting enough, the reason officials were able to reunite Willow with her owner Jamie Squires of Boulder was that she had a microchip implanted when she was a kitten. Banks added that Willow is healthy and probably hasn’t been living on the streets for very long.

Researchers say that three genetically engineered kittens may hold the potential cure for AIDS. The kittens were given genes from a fluorescent jellyfish, which causes them to glow in the dark with a light green color. In addition, they received antiviral genes from a rhesus macaque. Those specific genes may not directly impact a search for an AIDS cure, but the method by which they were mixed with the cats genes just may do the trick. 

It turns out that cats are much more useful in this particular type of genetic research than mice or other animals. And while some animal rights activists may protest the research, it turns out any breakthroughs are likely to be just as, if not more, beneficial to the cats themselves. Felines are suffering from their own version of an AIDS epidemic (FIV):

This efficient process, the first time sex cells of a carnivore have been genetically modified, led to embryos that robustly expressed the implanted gene without all the complexities cloning can involve. The result — three healthy kittens that glowed green when a blue light was shone on them and transmitted the gene to their offspring.

The researchers then applied this approach to investigating resistance to AIDS.

“We want to see if we can protect the domestic cat against its AIDS virus, if we can protect any species, eventually including ours, against its own AIDS virus,” Poeschla told LiveScience. The aim of future treatments is a gene therapy that can introduce protective genes into people that help them fight off HIV, he added.

In other words, a dog may be man’s best friend, but it’s cats who will one day save the world.