Animals are amazing and we are so grateful that God blesses us with incredible pets! House cats are quite extraordinary creatures that many of us love having in our own home! Cats have the reputation of being selfish and sometimes two-faced in order to get what they want, but 11-month-old Narnia is quite literally a two-faced cat!
An unknown genetic condition has left the British Shorthair cat with a face that is half grey and half black. Ever since a picture of Narnia surfaced online, the internet has been in love with him!
The beautiful British Shorthair has a one-of-a-kind face that is split evenly between black and grey. The 11-month-old, whose full name is Narnia De La Grace, was born in France. Now, Narnia lives with his breeder Stéphanie Jimenez who established the Chatterie de la Grâce, whose website describes it as “a small family breeding British longhair and shorthair[s].”
Jimenez said that she kept this cat as a pet because of his incredible markings. She said the tabby homecat was part of a “blue eyes” breeding project she is part of that was started by Sophie Guittonneau from the Aerlin cattery.
“Narnia has this special marking and blue eyes,” Jimenez said. “That’s why he is absolutely unique in the world. He is a little bit shy when he is in a new place, but a very soft and friendly cat. He doesn’t know he is so special, but I have a very strong link with him, he is my little baby.”
And even though Jimenez has been taking pictures of the cat since he was just a few days old, he just recently went viral after animal photographer Jean-Michel Labat shot a session with him. Ever since the shoot, traffic to the Chaterie’s Facebook page has shot up, and the page now has over 4,000 followers who love to look at pictures of Narnia.
Take a look at these photos of Narnia and see his true beauty for yourself! Wow, he really is one of a kind!
While the exact cause of Narnia’s striking appearance is still unknown, other cats who have a similar fur pattern are known as chimeras. A feline chimera is a cat whose cells contain two types of DNA, and this is caused when two embryos fuse together.
It’s not clear if Narnia is a true chimera, but if he is it means that he would be his own fraternal twin. And Narnia isn’t the first famous two-faced cat who has taken over the internet. Quimera, who is a black and orange cat that has a split colored face and two different-colored eyes, went viral in November last year. And, before her, there was another two-faced cat named Venus who became famous in 2012.
And even though these cats exhibit many characteristics of chimeras, not everyone believes that they truly are. There are many skeptics out there like Columbia University professor Virginia Papaioannou who believes that these famous two-faced cats are actually mosaics. “In a mosaic, there’s only one individual and it just happens to have different genetic components active in its cells.”
“All female mammals have two X-chromosomes,” Papaioannou said. “In a cat, one gene for fur color is located on the X chromosome. And in any female, expression of all the genes that are on the X chromosome will be ‘mosaic’ —that is, half of them will express one version of the gene (e.g., black fur) and half will express the other version of the gene (e.g., orange fur). The inactivation is random.” However, since Narnia is a male, it’s difficult to make the case that he’s a chimera.
Even though we aren’t sure if Narnia is a true chimera, we still think he’s adorable, and so does the internet! Since his recent rise to stardom, Jimenez has created a Facebook page just for Narnia which is filled with beautiful pictures and updates on the cat. The page is called “Amazing Narnia double face cat.”
Can’t get enough of sweet Narnia? Watch the video below to see the sweet cat play with his new toy:
[Source/Providr]
So, how does the birth of a chimera happen? According to Wikipedia: “A genetic chimerism or chimera (also spelled chimera) is a single organism composed of cells with distinct genotypes. In animals, this means an individual derived from different zygotes, which can include possessing both female and male sex organs, blood cells of two blood types, or subtle variations in form. Animal chimeras are produced by the merger of multiple fertilized eggs.
In plant chimeras, however, the distinct types of tissue may originate from the same zygote, and the difference is often due to mutation during ordinary cell division. Normally, genetic chimerism is not visible on casual inspection; however, it has been detected in the course of proving parentage.
Another way that chimerism can occur in animals is by organ transplantation, giving one individual tissue that developed from a different genome. For example, transplantation of bone marrow (an organ often not thought of as being such) often determines the recipient’s ensuing blood type.
An animal chimera is a single organism that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic. Chimeras are formed from at least four parent cells (two fertilized eggs or early embryos fused together). Each population of cells keeps its own character and the resulting organism is a mixture of tissues. Cases of human chimerism have been documented.
This condition is either inherited or it is acquired through the infusion of allogeneic hematopoietic cells during transplantation or transfusion. In non-identical twins, chimerism occurs by means of blood-vessel anastomoses. The likelihood of offspring being a chimera is increased if it is created via in vitro fertilization. Chimeras can often breed, but the fertility and type of offspring depend on which cell line gave rise to the ovaries or testes; varying degrees of intersex differences may result if one set of cells is genetically female and another genetically male.”
[Source/Wiki]
Share this story with your friends who love cats and see what they think about this cat’s coloring!
