pets

First, there was Sam, the World's Ugliest Dog...


Then, there was this:



CY, THE CYCLOPS KITTY

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A photo of a one-eyed kitten named Cy drew more than a little skepticism when it turned up on various websites but medical authorities have a name for the bizarre condition.
Holoprosencephaly causes facial deformities, said the U.S. 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, the institute' website said. Traci Allen said the kitten she named Cy, short for Cyclops, was born the night of Dec. 28 with the single eye and no nose.
"You expect don't 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 said she cared for the kitten the next day as well, until it died that evening.
Allen had taken digital pictures she provided to The Associated Press. Some bloggers have questioned the authenticity of the photo distributed 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.