A photo of a one-eyed kitten named Cy drew more than a little
skepticism when it turned up on various Web sites, but medical
authorities have a name for the bizarre condition.
"Holoprosencephaly" causes facial deformities, according to the
National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of
the National Institutes of Health. In the worst cases, a single eye
is located where the nose should be, according to the institute's
Web site. Traci Allen says the kitten she named Cy, short for
Cyclops, was born the night of Dec. 28 with the single eye and no
nose. "You don't expect to see something like that," the
35-year-old Allen said by telephone from her home in Redmond in
central Oregon. Allen said she stayed up all night with the
deformed kitten on her recliner, feeding Cy a liquid formula
through a syringe. She says she cared for the kitten the next day
as well, until it died that evening. Allen had taken digital
pictures that she provided to The Associated Press.
Some bloggers have questioned the authenticity of the photo
distributed on Jan. 6. AP regional photo editor Tom Stathis said he
took extensive steps to confirm the one-eyed cat was not a hoax.
Stathis had Allen ship him the memory card that was in her camera.
On the card were a number of pictures - including holiday
snapshots, and four pictures of a one-eyed kitten. The kitten
pictures showed the animal from different perspectives. Fabricating
those images in sequence and in the camera's original picture
format, from the varying perspectives, would have been virtually
impossible, Stathis said.
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