Luna, a “two-faced” cat whose tiny face is half black and half orange, recently found a forever home and now gets all the attention everywhere she goes because of her unique appearance.
“Whenever she goes out of the house, people will stop in the street and double-take when they look at her,” Janet Bell, Luna’s adopter, told People. “People will say how beautiful and unusual she looks or ask me why she looks like that.”
Luna is a chimera cat, meaning she was born with two sets of DNA — a unique quirk of nature that can occur in any species, including human beings. Her unique coloring is the result of two embryos with distinct DNA fusing together in the womb.
Chimera kittens can be born with slight shifts in coloration or other not-so-easily detectable differences — such as having two blood types. Occasionally, however, the effect presents in a dramatic and stunning fashion.
“I thought she was beautiful, we couldn’t believe it,” said Bell. “I’d never seen anything like it.”
Chimerism is a genetic phenomenon that cannot be intentionally bred for. That’s a good reminder to cat lovers to pick a feline whose personality and needs match your own — and as always, remember to adopt and not shop!
