WORCESTER — Frank and Louie is a cat who was born with two faces, so he has two names. Does that mean he has 18 lives?
It almost seems so now that he has earned a spot as the longest lived Janus cat in the new edition of the Guinness World Records (Guinness has dropped the word “book” from the name in this digital age).
The cat's owner is a Worcester woman named Marty, who asked that her last name not be used to shield her identity and her unusual pet from curiosity seekers. She has owned Frank and Louie since a local breeder brought him into Tufts Veterinary Clinic to be euthanized when he was a day old.
Marty was a veterinary nurse at Tufts at the time and offered to take him home.
The prognosis, however, was not good. Janus cats, named after the Roman god with two faces, are extremely rare and seldom live more than a few days after being born. Often they die within hours. But under Marty's dedicated care Frank and Louie flourished. He turned 12 years old on Sept. 8.
