It’s hard to eat for two when you’re just a single, tiny kitten.
Biscuits and Gravy, the kitten born with two faces, has died after outliving its one and only life, according to the little cat‘s owners.
The so-called “Janus cat” was born in a litter of six kittens at a farm in Albany, Ore., on May 20, much to the surprise of new owners Kyla and B.J. King. The cat had two noses, four eyes, two mouths and one brain stem — the result of a congenital defect known as cranial duplication. Its faces were joined at one cheek so that it would always be looking left and right at any given time.
Biscuits and Gravy ultimately lived for four days and died on Saturday, the Kings wrote in a Facebook post.
“Kyla … put all of her efforts into saving him,” they wrote on a Facebook fan page dedicated to the cat. “He was born with the longest of odds and by living nearly four days, he beat those odds.”
The longest-lived Janus cat survived for about 15 years, but most only live for about a day.
The Kings say they did their best to help Biscuits and Gravy, but the kitten simply wasn’t getting bigger, no matter how much they fed it. The kitten could eat and meow with both of its faces, but the Kings still struggled to feed it.
“He ate a lot, and he peed and pooped a lot,” they wrote. “He just didn’t grow. It’s hard work for a little guy like him to support a large head with two complete faces.”
The Kings knew right from the start that every day would be a coin-flip for their two-faced kitten. Nevertheless, they named it Biscuits and Gravy, showered it with special care and shared its unusual existence with the rest of the world via the news and social media.
Kyla King says she nursed the kitten with a bottle every day, tucked it into her shirt to keep it warm and slept with it in a room separate from her husband.
She thanked all of the kitten’s fans and supporters on Sunday in the wake of its death.
“This story has been a story of life and how very precious it is, whether days or years, whether animal or human,” Kyla King wrote on Facebook late Sunday. She added that she feels “blessed” to have been part of the unusual kitten’s story and to have brought joy to others by sharing that story online.
“We loved him and cared for him and he passed in my hands,” she wrote.
“We are thankful to still have his siblings to care for, and they are just as precious.”
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