They named him Frank and Louie. The world joked and called him “Frankenlouie.” But to the woman who took him home, he was never a curiosity. He was simply hers. He was born on September 8, 1999, in Massachusetts — a tiny kitten with two faces and one determined little heart. Most people assumed he wouldn’t live through the night. Kittens like him almost never do. But Martha “Marty” Stevens looked at him and saw more than a diagnosis. She brought him home instead of letting him be put down. She fed him carefully, watched him breathe, kept him warm against her chest. Day after day, night after night, he kept choosing life — and she kept choosing him. And somehow, against every prediction, he didn’t just survive. He grew. He learned to purr, to play, to curl up in her lap like any other cat. The strange little kitten became a gentle, grey-and-white companion who followed her through the house, a living reminder that nature doesn’t always follow the rules. In 2012, Guinness World Records recognized him as the longest-living two-faced cat in history — 15 years of life that no one believed he would have. On December 4, 2014, Frank and Louie’s life came to an end. Marty said goodbye to the cat she had once been told was “not worth saving”. But his story didn’t end there. Photos of him, resting peacefully with his two calm faces, still circle the internet. People read about him and quietly rethink what they consider “normal,” what they call “hopeless,” and who deserves a chance. Frank and Louie was born a medical rarity. Marty turned him into something else entirely: Proof that one act of kindness can turn a life from “impossible” into unforgettable. Photograph by Steven Senne, AP