The Cat with Two Faces

No, its not Photoshopped. Venus is a cat unlike any other. One half of her face is solid black with a green eye, and the other ginger with tabby stripes and a blue eye. 
Image credit
 

Image credit

Now an Internet star, the remarkable cat’s beginnings were humble. In a stroke of luck, Venus’s owner spotted her as a kitten amongst a litter of strays in a photo her husband took whilst working on a dairy farm in North Carolina. She fell instantly in love and rang the farm owner at once to ask if she could adopt her. Two days later her husband flew interstate to bring little Venus home. 

Internet stardom was almost inevitable when pictures of the unique cat began circulating online. She now has over 166k likes on her Facebook page, a popular Youtube channel and a stuffed plush toy replica to her name. 

Many were convinced she was a hoax, until she appeared in the flesh on the Today Show and was investigated by The National Geographic.  

There are a number of theories as to the cause of Venus’s unusual appearance. She is widely believed to be a ‘chimera’, a term coined after the mythological beast composed of many parts of different animals. In biology a chimera is an animal whose cells contain two types of DNA, after two embryos fuse together. Essentially, a ginger cat and black cat might have become one in Venus, her double-nature manifesting in her face.  
 

Image credit

But if Venus isn’t a chimera, what else could explain her unique looks? Simple luck, is the most likely other possible cause. It is feasible the cells in one side of her face were randomly activated so the fur turned black, whilst the other side was activated to turn orange. From this, a one in a million fur pattern was produced.   

According to some experts, Venus uniqueness is not just limited to her split face. Her single, inexplicable blue eye is also highly unusual. Blue eyes are rare outside of the Siamese breed, and are otherwise usually present in cats with a coat that is largely white in colour. Since a tiny patch on Venus’s chest is the only section of white fur, her eye is yet another oddity in her already remarkable appearance. 

Whatever the true cause of Venus’s mysterious looks, her star looks set to continue to rise.