ELLAVILLE —

Dolores Phillips got a little more than she bargained for when her pet cat, Sassy, gave birth to her second litter of kittens in three months sometime Sunday.

Phillips was out of town, and her daughter, Beverly Aldridge, was staying at her mother’s home.

According to Phillips, “My daughter called me on her cell phone and said that she thought Sassy had given birth to the kittens. And then she said, that there was something weird about one of them. I was like, ‘what?’ She said that one of them was born with two faces. I didn’t believe her. She tried to take a picture with her cell phone and send it to me.”

Gingerly, holding up the less than palm-sized kitten, wrapped in a towel, Phillips said, “We weren’t sure it would live until I got back, but it did, and sure enough, there are two faces.”

Phillips immediately made an appointment with her veterinarian, Sam Harper, for Monday morning. “I am having a hard time getting it to eat, and the mother doesn’t want anything to do with it, and the other kittens push it away. I have heard of kittens with two tails ... extra legs ... but not this.”

According to research found on the Internet, only about one in a million cats are born with two heads, however the deformity is more common among other animals, especially snakes and turtles.

Phillips said, “I hope it lives, and I really want it to have a good life ... I am going to do my best to make sure it lives, if possible.”

According to Phillips, the kitten, a little “top heavy,” does try to crawl and move about, and meows out of both mouths.

After a visit to Harper’s Animal Clinic, Phillips was given a number of options. She did find out that the kitten, a female, would more than likely just eat out of one mouth because of a cleft palate in the other. She was also told that they could do a lot of x-rays and tests, all expensive, but as far as they could tell, it would be a wait and see game. She was given a syringe to feed the kitten.

“I decided to give it a shot and take the kitten home with me, and see if we can do our best to make it live,” she said.

When asked what she was going to name the kitten, Phillips looked at it for a moment, rubbing its head, smiling, “My daughter called it Lucky.”

And so for now, Lucky, is at home.

The Times-Recorder will keep readers updated with Lucky’s progress in future editions in print and online at www.americustimesrecorder.com. If you have ever had a pet born with a unique physical characteristic, please contact Becky Holland.