It was probably the summer of 1985, and my future ex-wife and future veterinarian, gave me a call at home and said, you have to come see this.
A dairy calf with two symmetrically opposed heads, had been born nearby and brought to the vet school.
It died within two days.
A couple of years later I dabbled in a philosophy of science MSc, and when classmates were debating (stoned) the various accuracies of some historical writings concerning weird creatures I said, it’s biology, shit happens. I’ve seen a two-headed cow, the prof and others openly mocked me.
No worries about that, I was never cut out to be a philosopher of anything.
Shit still happens.
A two-faced kitten who was born in Oregon this past week has died just four days later … despite a hard-fought battle to pull through.
The rare feline phenom — which is often referred to as a Janus cat — was part of a litter of six kittens that popped out in Albany on Wednesday, and the owner, Kyla King, noticed one of them had two mugs on one giant head. She named the kitty Biscuits and Gravy.
Kyla and her family documented B&G’s development over the next few days, showing off their attempts to feed the kitten — which proved incredibly difficult, on account of it being able to feed itself out of both faces — as well as it playing and napping with its siblings.
The owners say Biscuit (its short name) was actually able to eat pretty decently, but he simply wouldn’t grow … and had trouble carrying its head, which was too big for its body.
In the end, the cat died of natural causes — with Kyla writing … “This photo was taken about an hour before Biscuits died. Kyla gave up 3 1/2 days of her life to put all of her efforts into saving him. He was born with the longest of odds and by living nearly 4 days, he beat those odds.”
How will the philosophers explain that one.