Record-Setting 2-Faced Cat Dies at 15

Photo: Frank and Louie. Credit: Facebook.

Frank and Louie, the oldest two-faced cat on record, died Thursday in Grafton at 15, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Owner Martha Stevens, of Worcester, raced her extremely rare pet to Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine that morning, where veterinarians euthanized him, as he was probably suffering from cancer, according to the report.

Frank and Louie was a Janus cat, named for the Roman god with two faces. Janus cats usually don’t live very long and occur when “one embryo either splits to form twins, or two embryos early in development don’t quite properly fuse together,” noted veterinarian Leslie Lyons told National Georgraphic.

Frank and Louie, who gained national attention, set the Guinness World Record in 2011 as the oldest Janus cat, according to the New York Daily News. Stevens recused him from being euthanized after birth in 1999.