As a veterinarian, Dr. Ralph Tran has definitely encountered a ton of weird conditions and rare animals in his career – but his latest encounter is definitely the most unique one he’s ever had. In fact, Dr. Tran was completely flabbergasted when he was introduced to a special kitten by a friend.

The newborn kitten had two faces, which is caused by a very rare genetic condition.

The doctor was on a trip from the East Coast all the way to San Diego, California when he suddenly received quite an interesting text from a friend. She told the doctor that one of her cats bore a so-called ‘Janus kitten’, which is the term for a two-faced feline.

Unfortunately, the mother of the Janus kitten rejected him very likely because of the unique condition. As the kitten couldn’t count on his mother to care for him, he needed someone else to care for him – and that’s where Dr. Tran comes in.

With plenty of experience caring for neonatal kittens, Dr. Tran didn’t hesitate to take the poor kitten in.

Aside from all the animals he sees on a daily basis at his veterinary clinic, the man also takes care of eight cats at home and also has a few birds as pets. One more adorable kitten couldn’t hurt, he thought, and the other pets in the home would have a new play buddy.

However, Dr. Tran was quite shocked when he discovered that the cat’s condition was rarer than he anticipated.

“I really didn’t know much about what condition she had. I assumed she was a typical Siamese twin, but she’s not,” he told People.

He also knew that kittens with this condition usually don’t live longer than a couple of days.

Nonetheless, he decided to take care of the kitten as best as he could. He named his new friend ‘Duo’, a reference to the two faces. Siamese twins do occur more often, but Duo was different because the two faces aren’t conjoined via a single body part.

His defect is called craniofacial duplication, meaning that the kitten only has one head, but two faces. Both of those faces fully work, meaning that Duo can breathe and make noises with both of his mouths and noses.

Duo is not the first of his kind, as another Janus cat recently garnered some international attention.

This other cat, which was given two names – Frank and Louie – actually made the news because he lived a lot longer than most doctors anticipated. In fact, the feline is even a Guinness Book of World Records title holder for being the oldest cat with two faces in the world. Frank and Louie passed away in 2014 at the age of fifteen years.

Even though two-faced cats usually don’t get to live very long, Duo is actually doing great with his new loving owner.

Taking care of the cat wasn’t always an easy task, as he struggled with plenty of difficulties and complications.

For starters, the kitten’s eyes often form a problem as Duo struggles with lots of infections and skin irritation. The doctor thinks that the eyes will have to be removed once the cat grows older, but everything is still manageable for now.

Feeding duo also wasn’t always an easy task – he had to be fed by tube at the beginning, and later a syringe was needed. Drinking from the bottle was also a complete no-go, as Duo simply wouldn’t accept it.

However, despite all of the struggles he’s had, Duo is doing quite well now and has even befriended all of the other pets in the home.

“It was roughly around eight weeks of age, maybe nine weeks, when she started recognizing the other cats, toys, and me. Now she runs [over] when she sees me,” Dr. Tran concluded.

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Source: Inspire Edition, People