info@ap.org Please forward this little note to: TERRENCE PETTY Associated Press Writer Portland, Oregon and Terrence Petty's Supervisor __________________________________________ February 6, 2006 Dear Mr. Petty, Thank you for your sensitive presentation of the one-eyed kitten story. It could very easily have become a freak show with tabloid sensationalism. I was also touched by the gentle, tender photo. I know that you did not take the photo (rather it was submitted by the kitten's owner) but in any case it was very classy. I felt certain that the kitten was loved during its short visit. I don't know if you still have the contact information for Traci Allen, but if you do, please forward this note to her as well. [Owner: Traci Allen of Redmond, Oregon] Thank you again. News is often focused on cold, hard fact-finding. But, however true a fact may be, without the emotion to give it context, it rings hollow and is easily ignorable. Your story was neither. Keep up the good work! -- Sunny Sunny Snaith http://sosayssunny.com/ http://sunshinehtml.com/ ============================================================ PORTLAND, Ore. - A photo of a one-eyed kitten named Cy drew more than a little skepticism when it turned up on various Web sites, but medical authorities have a name for the bizarre condition. "Holoprosencephaly" causes facial deformities, according to the 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, according to the institute's Web site. Traci Allen says the kitten she named Cy, short for Cyclops, was born the night of Dec. 28 with the single eye and no nose. "You don't expect 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 says she cared for the kitten the next day as well, until it died that evening. Allen had taken digital pictures that she provided to The Associated Press. Some bloggers have questioned the authenticity of the photo distributed on 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. Meanwhile, Cy the one-eyed cat may be dead, but it has not left the building. Allen said she's keeping the cat's corpse in her freezer for now, in case scientists would like it for research. She said one thing's for certain: "I'm not going to put it on eBay." ============================================================= Cyclops' Cat Photo Draws Worldwide Attention, Some Doubts AP Photo/Traci Allen CAT FIGHT: Cy, short for Cyclops, 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. By Joe Strupp Published: January 13, 2006 3:55 PM ET NEW YORK Cyclops, the one-eyed kitten, may have only lived for a day. But in its short lifetime, it's drawn as much notice as any pet cat since Garfield. And as much scrutiny as a witness in a murder trial. The single-vision feline, nicknamed Cy, reportedly came into the world on Dec. 28, according to owner Traci Allen, an Oregon woman whose photo of the newborn has popped up on Web sites worldwide. Her veracity continues to be questioned in the blogoshere, despite assurances from Associated Press editors who distributed the photo that it is genuine. "I can't believe this picture has generated this much [attention]," said Tom Stathis, AP regional photo editor who sent out the photo from his Southern California office on Jan. 6. "With the ability to manipulate images becoming so easy, nobody trusts the unusual. It kind of takes the magic out of photojournalism." But it also has turned any photo whose origin is not 100% known into a potential fake. Stathis believes he properly scrutinized the Cyclops picture when it was sent to him from AP's Portland, Ore. office. Attempts by E&P to reach Allen, the cat's owner who shot the picture, have been unsuccessful so far. Among those wondering about the photo was The Bulletin of Bend, Ore., the closest daily paper to Redmond, Ore., where Allen lives. Photo Editor Dean Guernsey was not on duty when the photo came across the AP Wire on Jan. 10, but he said others in the photo department passed on it because it could not be verified. "Everybody around here said they could not tell if it was a hoax," Guernsey said. "It was not an AP photographer and I also have not been able to find her name in the phone book. You can do anything in Photoshop these days and it did not come from anyone whose name I recognized." The photo originally came to AP through its feedback space on Yahoo.com, where it was submitted by Allen's mother, according to AP Spokesman Jack Stokes. "It was then forwarded to AP Photos, which e-mailed the person who submitted the picture, inquiring as to its veracity," he told E&P in an e-mail. "She informed AP Photos that the kitten belonged to her daughter." Concerned that it could be a hoax, Stathis said he had Allen send him the memory stick from the digital camera she says she used. After some Christmas snaps, four shots of the cat, taken from slightly different angles, appeared. "When you look at it, there are four sequential photos and the numbers are correct," Stathis told E&P, adding that it did not appear to be altered from the memory stick. "I have been in the [photo] business 25 years and the digital [photo] business as long as there has been digital photography and I don't know of any way it could be done. I work with digital photographs every day." But what about the kitten itself? Could the photos be un-manipulated but the subject a fake? "That is a good question," Stathis said. "It crossed my mind when we were looking at it, but it did not look to me like some kind of created object, and that is just purely my judgment." Stathis said someone from the AP Portland office could have traveled to Allen's home in Redmond to see the kitten, which she contends she has kept in her freezer. But he said that idea was dismissed because the woman's home is about a four-hour drive from Portland. "We had a lot of other things on our plate," Stathis noted. The photo editor also said he spoke with the cat's owner and believed she was being honest in her story. "She came across as very forthright and seemed as genuine as you can over the phone," Stathis said. "She wasn't pushing it. I did not have the feeling that she was trying to foist something on us." But the doubts continue, from Web sites and bloggers who have been taking AP, and Allen, to task for days. The backlash was so severe, AP posted a story earlier this week explaining the vetting process and assuring skeptics that it was a real photo. The story even cited experts from the National Institute for Neurological Disorders who said such a disfigurement is possible in kittens through something called "Holoprosencephaly." Still, that has not quieted all of the doubters as blogs continue to question the reality of Cy. "I have had several cats that have given birth and all of those kittens were born with their eyes closed. If this cat lived for a day it's eye should have been closed," wrote one skeptic at digg.com. Then there is killogs.com, which posted one person's poem about Cy, Oh Cyclops Kitten I didn't know you But I bet you woulda made a great pet Woulda scared everybody at the vet You are the cutest thing I wish that I had met Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P. ============================================================ http://www.messybeast.com/freak-face.htm In January 2006, another cyclops kitten photo did the rounds of the internet (the white kitten, above right). Cy, short for Cyclopes, was a Ragdoll kitten born 28th December 2005 with only one eye and no muzzle. The owner, Traci Allen, raises Ragdolls in Redmond, Oregon. The litter contained only 2 kittens, this one and a normal sibling. Cy, photographed by the owner as a newborn (the fur appears slick from amniotic fluid rather than fluffy and dry), died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Many blogs and boards have claimed the photos to be fake, but have no knowledge of cranial defects to support their opinion. It is not a fake. Although kittens do not open their eyes for 2 weeks, Cy has no eyelids and cannot close the eye (compare this with the black kitten where the eye protrudes from the skull). The eye is still moist, either from amniotic fluid or possibly from being moistened by the breeder (even normal kittens are sometimes born with open eyes). The bottow rim of the eye is incompletely fused. Although the head appears to be normal size, the eye is disproportionately large and occupies most of the central facial area - this is due to the abnormal growth of the facial structures associated with cyclopia. The internal structure of the eye is also defective: it lacks the pigmented iris that is blue in normal kittens; it has no blood vessels and no tapetum (the reflective layer that causes red-eye/green-eye in flash photography). The malformed brain means the eye is blind. The head is an abnormal shape with no muzzle and with the mouth presenting as a slit below the eyes. During its short life, the kitten was syringe-fed and made comfortable by the owner. Following its death, the kitten's body was deep frozen in case it could be examined for research. Dr Keith Johnson of the Mountain View Veterinary Clinic delivered a cyclops kitten in the 1970s. He has kept the kitten's remains in a jar and shows it to those who ask to see it. Johnson noted that cyclopia is an extremely rare condition and he would be surprised if many more such kittens have been born (most affecte foetuses are aborted, or in the case of cats, reabsorbed, and do not reach full-term). Johnson noted that his one-eyed kitten was the result of inbreeding. There are numerous cyclopic human infants preserved in medical museums. Cyclopia has been described in sheep, cattle and goats. Cyclopic infants, regardless of species, have a single monstrous eye in the middle of the forehead, underneath what remains of the nasal cavity. Those few that reach full term survive no more than a few days. The most usual cause is a mutation in the Sonic hedgehog gene and the degree of cyclopia depends on how badly the gene is damaged. Sonic hedgehog codes for a morphogen protein that instructs cells where they are, where to migrate to and what to become. When this protein malfunctions, the body’s geometry is disrupted to a greater or lesser degree. Before the eyes form, part of the forebrain (cerebrum) is dedicated to the brain wiring related to the eyes. Sonic hedgehog normally divides this region (optic field) into two smaller areas, one on either side i.e. one for each eye. If the gene malfunctions, only one optic field forms and there is either a single fused eye or two eyeballs in a single eye socket. The internal organs may also be affected depending on how badly the gene is damaged. If Sonic hedgehog is completely disabled, the embryo does not develop paws or a face, it just has an eyeless, earless, mouthless trunk in place of the head. ============================================================ http://nastily.blogspot.com/2006/01/cyclops-kitty-rip.html Oh ... and I think it is a beautiful example of the variety of life on this planet. Its brief life serves only to underscore the incredible value of its unique existence. My heart melts.