One eye kitten not a hoax, says AP

After I wrote about Cy, the lovable one-eyed kitten that graced our world with her gentle presence for one brief day, about 100 people emailed me to tell me that I am a fool. "You sure are stupid -- kittens' eyes are not open when they are born" was the gist of the emails.

Today, Associated Press ran a short piece insisting the story is not a hoax.

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.

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