11:32 AM PST on Wednesday, January 11, 2006

By kgw.com and AP Staff

REDMOND, Ore. -- A Redmond woman whose photo of a one-eyed kitten was posted on the Web said she is keeping the deceased animal's body in her freezer in case scientists would like it for research.

AP photo

Cy, short for Cyclopes, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose, is shown in this photo provided by its owner in Redmond.

The photo of the one-eyed kitten named Cy drew more than a little skepticism when it turned up on various Web sites, but doctors and 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. The rare deformity typically results in death.

Traci Allen said the kitten she named Cy, short for Cyclops, was born the night of Dec. 28 with the single eye and no nose and stayed alive for a few hours.

"You don't expect to see something like that," the 35-year-old Allen said by telephone from her home 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 said 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, despite the media interest in the deformed kitten's body: "I'm not going to put it on eBay."