CY

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, Ore., on Dec. 28, 2005. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy.

The kitten suffered from a rare disorder called holoprosencephaly.

Holoprosencephaly is a disorder characterized by the failure of the forebrain of the embryo to develop. During normal development the forebrain is formed and the face begins to develop in the fifth and sixth weeks of human pregnancy. (The condition also occurs in other species, as with Cy, the Cyclops kitten.) Holoprosencephaly is caused by a failure of the embryo's forebrain to divide to form bilateral cerebral hemispheres (the left and right halves of the brain), causing defects in the development of the face and in brain structure and function.

This one-eyed kitten is to be centerpiece of his Creationism Museum (Go figure this out!) John Adolfi plans to feature Cy's remains at The Lost World Museum. The Phoenix, N.Y., museum will feature such oddities as giant plants and eggs, deformed animal remains and unique archaeological finds.

Adolfi believes in creationism — a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation.
He wrote on the museum's Web site that the theory of evolution states that "environmental pressures can lift species from the ape-like creature ... to us today. My question is this. Are there really positive mutations?

Adolfi plans to display Cy's body as an example of negative mutation that, in his eyes, proves that mutation could never have fueled a positive concept like evolution of the species. Sadly, those of you who eagerly anticipate going to visit the one-eyed creature will have to wait: the museum will not open until 2009.

Owner Traci Allen, of Redmond, Ore., said she sold Cy's remains to Adolfi because she believes "creationism should be an option for people to consider." She said she turned down other offers, including from Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

Here is an interesting excerpt from The Lost World Museum website. http://www.lostworldmuseum.com/

Update on Cy:Well Cy is about to be placed in her permanent home. She has been resting comfortably in a vat of formalin these last two weeks waiting for the person in charge of her preservation to come back from vacation. Cy will under go several additional baths of alcohol mixtures before she is ready. We are working on something that will allow us to display Cy in the late summer of this year. We will announce where and when Cy will go on display for the first time publicly here on this site before it goes to the media. You may want to sign up to receive via e-mail an alert when a new blog is published. This way you won’t miss a thing including the forthcoming announcement of Cy’s premier.

It is good to know that ole Cy is not being exploited as noted by this statement on the website.

Earlier this month the Associated Press created a media frenzy over a one-eyed cat named Cy. Due to the limited information being rehashed over thousands of newspapers and web sites around the world, it left people wanting to know more about Cy’s story. Some have written us and asked, “What did the original owner Traci Allen think when she first discovered Cy? Why did the Lost World Museum want Cy? What is Cy’s significance? How did she end up with one eye? Can I visit her?”

These questions along with her “new roll” as the museum’s spokes animal necessitated the production of the new informational Cy cards. The story is in three parts. Each of the three cards has a different photo of Cy when she was alive. These are the only three photos ever taken during Cy’s short life. The original photos were extracted from the former cat owner’s camera memory stick. This allowed the images used to be the absolute highest quality reproductions of Cy available. These cards are a full 6″x9″ and you can have all 3 in a set for $5. Due to the limited numbers we print you may want to pre-order yours before the lines form. To purchase your very own legendary Cy Kitten cards Click Here. Cy Kitten cards ship late May 2006.