Narnia is a British Shorthair cat from France whose face looks as if two different cats were joined down the middle: one half is soft blue-grey, the other glossy black, and both are lit by pale blue eyes. His owner and breeder, Stéphanie Jimenez, began sharing his photos online when he was a young kitten, and he soon gathered a large Instagram following. Then came the twist that made headlines in 2019: Narnia fathered kittens that each wore one of the two colours from his face, one all grey and one all black.
It looks like a perfect genetic magic trick. In reality it is a neat illustration of how cat coat colour is inherited, and of how much we still cannot tell from looks alone. Here is Narnia's story, the science behind his split face, and what his kittens do and do not prove.
Who is Narnia?
Narnia was born in a litter of British Shorthairs raised by Jimenez in France. The breed is known for its round face, dense plush coat and calm temperament. The classic British Shorthair colour is "blue", which in cat-breeding language means an even blue-grey, so a grey half-face fits the breed well. The black half is what makes him stand out.
Jimenez photographed him from the time he was small enough to sit in her hand, and the account @amazingnarnia became one of those pet profiles that people share far beyond cat-lover circles. The posts below give a sense of how striking the dividing line on his face is, and how cleanly it runs down the nose.
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
Seen in profile, Narnia can look like a completely different cat depending on which side faces the camera.
Phoenix and Prada: kittens in each of his colours
In 2019 Narnia became a father. According to his owner, two of the kittens, named Phoenix and Prada, were born solid coloured: one black and one grey. Side by side with their father, they look like the two halves of his face had walked off on their own.
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
Jimenez has described Narnia as a patient, playful father who tolerates his kittens' tumbling. She has also said that earlier litters included kittens in a variety of other colours, and that several shared his light blue eyes. Those details come from the owner's own posts and interviews rather than independent records, so they are best read as the family's account.
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
Why is his face split into two colours?
Nobody has published a definitive answer for Narnia, but there are a few well-understood ways a cat can end up with two clearly different colours on its body.
Chimerism
A chimera forms when two early embryos fuse into one animal, so its body carries two sets of DNA. If one set codes for black fur and the other for blue, the coat can show both in separate patches. Chimerism is one of the known explanations for rare male tortoiseshell cats. When Narnia first went viral, many people assumed he was a chimera, and some reports said his owner later had tests done that pointed away from that idea. We could not find the test results published, so that part remains unconfirmed.
Mosaicism
A mosaic animal starts as a single embryo, but a genetic change happens in one cell early in development. Every cell descended from it carries the change, and the others do not. This too can produce a patch of a different colour, sometimes with a sharp edge.
Ordinary pattern and chance
The cells that make pigment in a cat's coat travel from the spine down and around the body during development, meeting along the midline of the face and belly. That is why many split-face cats show the line right down the nose. Some striking faces, such as the American cat Venus, made famous online for her own two-tone face, show how often that midline acts as a natural border.
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
What the black and grey kittens really tell us
It is tempting to read Phoenix and Prada as each inheriting "half" of their father's face. Genetics works a little differently.
In cats, blue (grey) is simply a diluted form of black. The dilution comes from a recessive gene version usually written as d. A cat needs two copies, dd, for its black pigment to look blue-grey. A cat with one or no copies looks black. So a black cat that carries one hidden d, paired with a mother who also passes on d, can easily produce both black and blue kittens in the same litter. This happens all the time in British Shorthair breeding, with fathers of a single colour.
That means the kittens' colours depend on which gene versions each parent passed on, not on which side of Narnia's face they "copied". Their mother's genes matter just as much as his. The result is still a lovely coincidence, and a very photogenic one, but it does not prove that Narnia's two-tone face is inherited or that it will appear in later generations.
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
About those blue eyes
Almost all kittens open their eyes to a blue colour, because the pigment that gives adult eyes their final shade has not built up yet. In most cats the colour starts shifting during the first couple of months and settles over the following weeks. British Shorthairs are usually expected to end up with copper or gold eyes, so an adult with clear blue eyes, like Narnia, stands out within the breed.
Blue eyes in cats can be linked to several different genes, including those behind colourpoint coats and white spotting. In white cats, blue eyes are associated with a higher chance of deafness, a reminder that eye colour can sometimes be more than cosmetic. Narnia is not a white cat, and his owner has not reported any health problems, but anyone thinking of buying a cat for an unusual look should ask breeders about health testing first and talk to a vet about any concerns.
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
Common myths about unusual cats
- "A split face always means a chimera." Not so. Chimerism is one possibility, but mosaicism and normal developmental patterns can look identical. Only DNA testing of different tissues can tell them apart.
- "Kittens copy their father's markings." Kittens inherit gene versions from both parents. Distinct markings like Narnia's are not passed on as a single unit.
- "Cats are basically wild animals." Cats were domesticated thousands of years ago, and many breeds, the British Shorthair among them, have been shaped by selective breeding. They keep many independent habits, but they are domestic animals.
- "Rare looks mean a rare breed." Narnia is a standard British Shorthair. His appearance is unusual, but his breed is one of the most common pedigree cats in Europe.
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
A post shared by 🖤💙 AMAZING NARNIA Double Face (@amazingnarnia) on
Why Narnia still delights people
Part of Narnia's appeal is that he looks like a visual puzzle you want to solve. Part of it is simpler: he is a handsome, gentle-looking cat photographed by someone who clearly adores him. The science does not make him less remarkable. If anything, knowing how coat colour works makes the moment his grey and black kittens sat beside him even more fun, because it shows how ordinary genes can line up to produce something that looks almost designed.
For anyone who loves unusual animals, Narnia's story is a good reminder to enjoy the photos while keeping a little healthy curiosity about the explanations that come with them.
Sources: photos and embedded posts by Stéphanie Jimenez via @amazingnarnia on Instagram; My Modern Met: Narnia the two-faced cat; Wikipedia: Cat coat genetics.
COMMENTS