Posted on 01/09/2006 8:16:09 PM PST by jb6
Cy, short for Cyclopes, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose, is shown in this photo provided by its owner in Redmond, Oregon, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy. (AP Photo/Traci Allen)
Hate to say, but that little thing looks like a troll.
Homer Simpson working overtime at the nuke plant again?
And posted about a gillion times already.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1553866/posts
A previous post on the subject.
Your the first person I have heard sayng it is fake. Any proof it is?
Photo was given to the AP by the "owner".
Kittens are born with their eyes closed, and when their eyes do open, they are always blue.
Even if this kitty was mutant enough to have been born with an open eye, the owner says it is a Ragdoll kitten. ALL Ragdolls have blue eyes, so this kitten would not have the genetic ability to have a brown eye.
It does not have a cat pupil.
If it were born deformed, what are the odds that it would have a perfectly centered open round eye?
My last point is that the AP prints what anyone tells them, without verification.
My personal opinion is that it is photoshopped.
Apart from that I don't think this rises to the level of news. Deformed animals in domestic stock are not unusual. They are highly inbred usually.
True. But this has been moved to chat, where such things belong.
Evening Teeny Should have been moved to cat
Poor little thing
Good evening to you, too. Methinks the owner is pulling the proverbial chain.
The photo is real. That kitten was born with a defect that is an element in the Holoprosencephaly Spectrum. HPE occurs when the corpus callosum of the forebrain fails to develop. There is a wide range of defects within the HPE Spectrum. Some defects are barely noticeable. The above defect is a very severe one. If you do a little research on the internet, you'll find some photos of human babies born with an identical defect. I'm not going to link any here because I don't want anyone to yell at me for posting links to photos that are likely to be very disturbing to some.
Ragdolls are offshoots of Siamese. They all have blue eyes. This kitty would not have the genetic information to produce brown.
As I said, do a little research on HPE. In the human babies born with such a severe defect in the spectrum, the "eye" has the same appearance. Sometimes it's actually red. The gene that is defective in HPE is responsible for the development of many, many fundamental elements of body structure. And it's a gene that operates at the most fundamental level of embryological development...the HSS gene enables the expression of other genes. If the foundation of your house is defective, it doesn't matter what color you wanted the shingles to be.
I am not a Ph.D. in embryology, but I know that I know more than you about this particular subject. So while I can't write a dissertation on every minute aspect in the generation of every physical defect this kitten was born with, I can very confidently tell you that it's real. If you want to believe that or not, I really don't care. My previous post explaining HPE was mostly directed to other readers of the thread, who may genuinely want information on what occurred, as opposed to trying to look witty when they have no idea of that of which they speak.
Note to all Interested Parties: DO NOT follow the link if you get easily disturbed.
one day old and eye wide open? methginks not.
I didn't look at the link (didn't want to see more disturbing pics) but I have heard about this condition happening in humans. What is the prognosis for a baby born with HPE? Is the cause of HPE known? Is there a way to prevent it? Thanks.
The prognosis depends on the degree severity of the defect. It's essentially a lack of the midline of the brain, and sometimes the face. Severity depends on just how much of the midline is missing. There's a wide spectrum, and some children have only minor facial abnormailities, and behavioral problems. The very severe defects, like what this kitten had, are incompatible with life.
HPE is associated with maternal alcohol abuse during pregnance, maternal diabetes, and some other conditions that I can't remember off the top of my head. And it can of course occur without any precipitating factors. The very severe defects are, of course, very rare.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.