Kitten born with two faces
Rare Janus cat born in Port Charlotte
Jan 31 2012  |  www.local10.com

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -You’ve probably heard of cats having nine lives, but a Florida kitten was born with two faces.

The Janus cat is named Harvey Dent after the Batman character more commonly known as Two Face. Aaron Eckhart played Dent in the 2008 film The Dark Knight.

Janus cats are named after the mythical Roman god who had two faces. They are exceptionally rare.

“They simultaneously work together, the two faces. When he eats on one side it looks like he’s eating on the other. When he meows, it comes out of both sides,” said owner Nash Forsythe.

But the odds are against Janus cats.

Looking for help, Harvey Dents’ owners reached out to Dr. Greg Fluharty at a Port Charlotte Animal Clinic, who examined the cat.

“Everything is probably pretty good as far as the GI track and also the lungs, which sound normal. Respiration and heart rate were normal for a kitten that age,” said Dr. Fluharty.

Harvey Dent is scheduled to undergo neurology tests next week, but his owners said they are determined to give him a fighting chance.

“We are definitely not going to kill it. I am not going to let somebody tell me that it needs to he done. It shouldn’t be killed because it is a little different,” said Amanda Forsythe.

Janus cats can survive. One recently made the Guinness Book of World Records in 2011 after turning 12.

Copyright 2012 by Post Newsweek. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Booie, the 44-year-old chimp, lived at the Wildlife WayStation from 1955, after being retired from a research lab. Image Daily Mail.

Bye Bye Booie! California’s smoking chimpanzee who learned sign language dies at 44
12/11/11 | http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Bye Bye Booie! California’s smoking chimpanzee who learned sign language dies at 44

Heart condition: Booie, the 44-year-old chimp, lived at the Wildlife WayStation from 1955, after being retired from a research lab

A chimpanzee that kicked a smoking habit and used sign language to beg for candy has died at a California animal refuge.

Martine Colette, founder of the Wildlife WayStation, said Booie was being treated for a heart condition when he died on Saturday, at the age of 44.

The chimp had been living at the animal sanctuary near Los Angeles since 1995, after he retired from a research lab.

Ms Colette said she successfully turned Booie away from his smoking habit but could not make a dent in his love of sweets.

She said he would use his signing skills to panhandle for candy by signing: ‘Booie see sweet in pocket.’

Booie’s death is a serious blow to the financially troubled refuge because he was one of its best fundraisers.

Ms Colette said he had fans around the world because of his TV appearances.

Chimpanzees rarely live beyond 40 in the wild but have been known to live more than 60 years in captivity.

It has not been established whether Booie’s smoking habit contributed to his death.

Booie was eight years younger than Charlie, another chimpanzee famous for his smoking, who died in South Africa last year at the age of 52.

Charlie lived at Bloemfontein Zoo and first started his smoking habit after visitors began throwing lit cigarettes into his enclosure.

Zoo spokesman Qondile Khedama insisted Charlie was only an ‘occasional smoker’, but had none the less become famous around the world.

Image www.sun-sentinel.com

Adult deer found inside python in Everglades
Python that swallowed deer/South Florida Water Management District
By David Fleshler | October 28, 2011 | www.sun-sentinel.com

An adult deer was found intact inside a huge Burmese python Thursday, after the snake was captured and killed in the Everglades.

Contractors for the South Florida Water Management District encountered the python on a tree island in western Miami-Dade County, according to the district. It was killed with a shotgun blast.

The 15.7-foot snake had a massive bulge from a recently consumed 76-pound female deer, the largest intact prey ever found in a Burmese python in Florida, said Skip Snow, a biologist and python specialist at Everglades National Park, who conducted the necropsy.

The python, an ambush predator, had staked out a known deer trail, he said. When the deer walked by, the snake presumably seized the animal in its sharp, backward-pointing teeth, crushed the deer under its weight and coiled around it, killing the deer before consuming it, he said.

Burmese pythons have established a breeding population in the Everglades over the past several years, arriving by way of the exotic pet business. State and federal wildlife officials say they say they were released by pet owners after having grown too large or escaped from enclosures destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.

The snakes primarily eat smaller mammals and birds, with larger pythons taking alligators, deer and hogs. Although pythons have been discovered with deer remains before, this is the first time such a snake was caught after just consuming a deer. That allowed biologists to see the size prey a python is capable of taking, Snow said. With the deer inside, the snake had a girth of 44 inches.

“This is clearly an extreme event,” he said. “It shows you they can eat huge things.”

Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the snake was discovered by work crews walking carefully through a tree island to remove non-native lygodium plants.

“It’s pretty clearly one of the biggest snakes we’ve seen,” Hardin said. “We haven’t gotten anything longer than 16 feet in the wild in Florida.”

dfleshler@tribune.com, 954-356-4535

click an image to embiggen

Pictures: Rare “Cyclops” Shark Found
One-Eyed Anomaly
Photograph courtesy Marcela Bejarano-Álvarez  |  Published October 13, 2011 | news.nationalgeographic.com

Talk about a one-of-a-kind discovery—an extremely rare cyclops shark (pictured) has been confirmed in Mexico, new research shows.

The 22-inch-long (56-centimeter-long) fetus has a single, functioning eye at the front of its head—the hallmark of a congenital condition called cyclopia, which occurs in several animal species, including humans.

Earlier this year fisher Enrique Lucero León legally caught a pregnant dusky shark near Cerralvo Island (see map) in the Gulf of California. When León cut open his catch, he found the odd-looking male embryo along with its nine normal siblings. “He said, That’s incredible—wow,” said biologist Felipe Galván-Magaña, of the Interdisciplinary Center of Marine Sciences in La Paz, Mexico.

Once Galván-Magaña and colleague Marcela Bejarano-Álvarez heard about the discovery—which was put on Facebook—the team got León’s permission to borrow the shark for research. The scientists then x-rayed the fetus and reviewed previous research on cyclopia in other species to confirm that the find is indeed a cyclops shark.

Cyclops sharks have been documented by scientists a few times before, also as embryos, said Jim Gelsleichter, a shark biologist at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. The fact that none have been caught outside the womb suggests cyclops sharks don’t survive long in the wild.

Overall, finding such an unusual animal reinforces that scientists still have a lot to learn, Gelsleichter added.

“It’s a humbling experience to realize you ain’t seen it all yet.”

—Christine Dell’Amore

Marty with Frank and Louie

Frank (left side) and Louie (right), a so-called Janus cat, has two mouths, two noses, two normal eyes, one non-working eye in the middle of his head, and one brain. Image By Steven Senne, AP

Image boston.cbslocal.com

Two-Faced Cat From Worcester Sets World Record
By Diana Perez, WBZ-TV | boston.cbslocal.com | September 27, 2011

WORCESTER (CBS) – To most people meeting Frank ‘n Louie for the first time he looks like any ordinary cat.

“They initially walk up with the look of ‘oh what a beautiful cat’ and then as he turns I see the look of horror come across their face.”

Marty, Frank ‘n Louie’s owner says her cat with two names is also the cat with two faces and after turning 12 earlier this month, he’s now the oldest two-faced cat.

WBZ-TV’s Diana Perez reports

He was nominated by Guinness World Records for the longest living Janus cat, which is a new term for two faced cat, says Marty. The term Janus cat refers to the Roman God Janus who had two faces.

But Frank ‘n Louie almost didn’t make it. When he was just one day old a breeder dropped him off to be euthanized. Marty, a veterinary nurse, adopted him right away, “Nobody had claimed him and I said ‘I’ll take him I’ll take him’ and everybody just told me don’t get your hopes up, they don’t live and I said, ‘let me just try.”

And so this two faced feline grew up to be a loving, healthy cat. With a few unique quirks that make Frank, Frank and Louie, Louie.

“Everything works in unison, so when this side eats, this side sometimes goes up and down… He see’s out of the two outside eyes here, the middle eye is not functional but it doesn’t bother him at all. He’s fine with the way he looks,” says Marty.

It’s twice the cat and twice the cute!

Frank ‘n Louie wasn’t expected to make it longer than four days, much less 12 years. His life expectancy is between 13 and 15 years but his owner is hoping he’ll keep his miracle cat status going and live well into is 20′s.

Harbor, Black And Tan Coonhound, Named Living Dog With World’s Longest Ears (Exclusive Adorable Pictures)
9/5/11 | www.huffingtonpost.com

His ears hang low.

Harbor, a black and tan coonhound, has earned recognition from Guinness World Records as the living dog with the world’s longest ears.

The 8-year-old pooch has a left ear that measures 12.25 inches and a right ear that measures 13.5 inches, according to the 2012 edition of the record book, which will be released Sept. 15.

Harbor’s enormous ears have earned him plenty of fans, according to his owner Jennifer Wert, of Boulder, Colo.

But they can also be a burden. When the purebred was a pup, he used to trip over them and tumble down the stairs, a Guinness press release notes.

Today, passersby often take pictures of Harbor’s droopy ears or give them a friendly tug when he’s out for a walk.

“Most days I forget how oddly long his ears are,” said Wert. “He’s a phenomenon in the world and he creates smiles wherever we go.”

Odd as it might sound, Harbor’s huge ears don’t necessarily improve his hearing — instead they boost his sense of smell. When a black and tan coonhound moves, its swinging ears push scents towards its nostrils, helping it detect and follow prey.

With his inclusion in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records, Harbor joins a long list of dogs with very long ears.

A basset hound named Mr. Jeffries set a world record in 2002 with ears measuring about 11.5 inches, according to the BBC.

In 2003, a German basset hound named Jack took the title with ears reportedly measuring just over 13 inches.

The following year, Tigger, a bloodhound from Illinois, set a world record that still stands today, with ears measuring 13.5 inches on the left and 13.75 inches on the right — 1.25 and .25 inches longer than Harbor’s droopy ears, respectively.

Tigger, who won many dog show titles and awards, passed away in 2009, according to the Guinness website.

Claire Nelson, Reading, credits her pet cat Rusty with saving her life by sensing a pending heart attack. Image Reading Eagle: Lauren A. Little.

Image Reading Eagle: Lauren A. Little.

Former nurse says pet cat saved her life
City resident calls her doctor after animal apparently senses pending heart attack
Erin Negley, Reading Eagle  |  6/15/2011

Claire Nelson rescued Rusty the cat from a shelter two years ago.

Now, the 66-year-old Reading resident is thanking the pet for saving her life.

According to Claire, she wasn’t feeling well one day last week but Rusty wouldn’t let her lie down.

So, Claire, who was a registered nurse for 30 years, headed to a doctor’s office. On her way there, she took a turn for the worse. She’s now recovering from a heart attack and credits Rusty for being a lifesaving pest that morning.

“He was persistent and it paid off,” said Claire, who adopted Rusty in December 2009.

She was looking for an animal to keep her company and went to the Humane Society of Berks County. The staff pointed out Rusty, a 10-year-old domestic short-hair cat, and the pair instantly clicked.

“He was just so sweet,” Claire said. “He started meowing and ankle cruising me.”

Claire, who said she’s in good health, didn’t think much of the pain that felt like heartburn last week. She blamed it on overindulging on homemade peanut butter cookies, even when the pain woke her up Wednesday at 4 a.m.

But Rusty, who is normally a very calm cat, wasn’t himself. He followed Claire everywhere, put his paws on her knees and kneaded her stomach when she tried to lie down.

She called her physician, and while waiting at the city terminal for a bus to the doctor’s office, the pain got worse. Claire dialed 9-1-1, and later was told at St. Joseph Medical Center that she had a heart attack. She required surgery to implant two coronary stents.

Claire thanks Rusty for pushing her to call for help.

“I think finally when he was aggravating me so relentlessly and I was sitting right in front of the phone, I decided to call (the doctor),” Claire said. “If he hadn’t done that, I might have tried to get in a comfortable position and lie down, and I might have just died before I ever got around to calling an ambulance.”

Rusty’s actions were not a coincidence, said Dr. Lee Pickett, a Bernville veterinarian.

“This is definitely a very special cat,” she said.

Researchers have studied instances when pets have alerted people to various diseases and disorders. For example, some dogs can detect bladder cancer by smelling urine. Assistance dogs can be trained to detect seizures, heart attacks and low-blood sugar, Pickett said.

Pickett’s not sure if animals pick up a smell, an electromagnetic field or something completely different. But an animal with a close bond to a person will notice abnormal changes, she said.

“I think that animals are more sensitive than we are to the changes in our bodies,” she said.

Since Claire returned home from the hospital on Saturday, Rusty has stayed close by her side.

Karel Minor, executive director of the humane society, has heard anecdotal stories about animals recognizing things like seizures, but Claire’s story is the first local instance he knows of.

“We we have always said that having animals will improve your life, but he saved her life,” Minor said of Rusty. “That’s the best possible example of the good a pet can do for your health.”

Contact Erin Negley: 610-371-5047 or enegley@readingeagle.com.