Meet Chase No Face, the heroic, seriously disfigured kitty

Here is what I know about this kitty (un-blurred photograph after the jump, or click the blurred one to see, some find it disturbing):

I was in an accident when I was 4 wks (2005), I became disfigured.
I have a Furry Will to survive & I am completely healed. I require medication during the day to keep my eyes moist. I will always look different but I am in NO PAIN!
I have seen 10 vets and they can attest to that! Im a happy kitty and hope to help other humans feel just as great about themselves and realize that not everyone looks perfect and that is OK.
=^..^=

Chase No Face kitty is on Facebook and the chasenoface blog.

Larger, unblurred photo of the kitty after the jump.

(thanks, Tara McGinley)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Delightful Creatures • Happy Mutants • Weird

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Scixual

Look, just because I don’t want to look at a photo doesn’t mean I hate the cat, hate ugliness, or am an insensitive clod. It doesn’t mean I am judgmental (honestly, I don’t even know where that one came from).

It might mean I am squeamish or a sissy, I’ll cop to that. When my kitty was hit by a car I took one look, gulped, and let my housemates take it to the vet. But if they weren’t around, I would have managed.

If Chase were in my life I would take a few deep breaths and get over it. Same as if I saw a burn victim next to me at McDonald’s.

So, hey, let’s lighten up on the judgmental comments about the people who don’t want to look at the picture.
Rider

OMFG that’s worse than goatse, lemon party, hive tit and every other horrible thing I have even seen rolled into one.

I clicked on boingboing and literally a shock went shooting down my spine when I saw this.
- Anonymous
  
  You’re overreacting… that is NOT worse than lemon party, hive tit OR goatse. Maybe ON PAR with, but DEF not WORSE.
Anonymous

my dad had been telling me about this poor baby for awhile and i finally decided to look. i had been picturing this horrible monster with no face or eyes or anything. but when i saw the picture my first reaction was, awww…. she wasn’t at all as bad as i thought and she certainly has a face. why is everyone freaking out? yes, it would be a bit of a shock if you weren’t expecting it but after awhile she doesn’t look as bad as you would think. shes obviously not in pain and she has a loving family taking care of her. I’m a kid and I’m not grossed out at all! even my 4 year old cousin saw her immediately said she was adorable even with her face. i don’t mean to sound “high horsey” but i thinks shes a wonderful looking kitty even if her eyes are wide and bulgy and the skin on her face is gone. i just don’t see whats wrong with her, shes a perfectly fine kitty except for the eye drops.
asbuuu

Thanks Xeni for moving the pic.

I agree with many other posts here. It’s not that the cat doesn’t deserve to be loved. It’s just that some mental preparation is in order. Images like that have a visceral effect – meaning, not something we choose to feel. But we can choose to suppress it, give a chance.
nanner

seriously, you need to give a kid some kind of WARNING, a minute to prepare or something
Jack

Thank you Xeni for doing a pixelated non-jump pic!

Someone has to acknowledge that.
Boondocker

Wow. I’m honestly not sure if I would be able to handle Chase nuzzling me. That would take some getting used to.

I wonder how medication can keep its eyes moist? Just drops, or something longer lasting?
- Quothz
  
  “I wonder how medication can keep its eyes moist? Just drops, or something longer lasting?”
  
  From the site:
  
  I received a question regarding how Chase keeps her eyes from drying out. Well, she still makes tears well so that keeps her eyes well lubricated but I use an artificial tear medication multiple times during the day to add extra moisture to them as well. And since she does not have eyelids, she also receives occasionally other eye medications (antibiotics and steroid drops) to keep her vision and eyes healthy as long as possible.
PKMousie

I’d just like to point out there’s a difference between gore and scar. That picture is not gory.

Oh and stop whining!
benher

I always feel terrible for animals who have experienced trauma. I want to hold Chase on my lap and pet him. I’m glad that he has owners who love him.
colinadams

I hope I make my sanity check.

Yes, please put it after the jump! I usually have a strong stomach, but I’d love a little warning, at least a description of what I am going to look at.
Anonymous

me too – a little notice next time. I’m going to go throw up and then have a cry then I’m going to go home and hug my cat.
Anonymous

Needs little darth vader mask.

But all joking aside, I’m really glad someone is taking good care of the poor little thing.
brerrabbit23

This is awesome. Seriously.

Let’s hear it for the nice folks who decided that this little guy deserved a shot at waking them up at 5am by kneading the top of their head with his claws, just like any “normal” annoying cat. :)

It just goes to show that, like alcohol, you don’t need a face to have fun.
Anonymous

Need. moar. unicorns.
travtastic

I appreciate it going after a cut, but in the future, could it possibly be a slightly smaller picture? Like, linked to full size?

I didn’t read the whole blog, but does it say why the plastic surgery didn’t work?
Maxload

this cat is totally awesome, i kind of want to put a little phantom of the opera mask on him, which he can remove at the right time, for maximum dramatic effect.
Alvis

Now I’ve got this WKUK song stuck in my head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IBfZTeo_AU

Welllll….
Donald Petersen

Y’know, it’s just a tad tiresome that a knee-jerk recoil at the unforewarned sight of disfigurement (especially disfigurement that looks far more painful than it apparently is) would be received as a childish, egocentric, spoiled-rotten, unsophisticated revulsion borne of an unwillingness to accept the occasionally harsh realities of life and death.

You see, most people don’t go “Eeeeeeuuuuaaaagggghhhhh!!!” when they see Mr. No Face because They Only Want To See Pretty, Inoffensive Things. The reaction is borne of sympathetic identification.

Sensitive folks can skip this paragraph. My brother’s Italian Greyhound named Giuseppe once got one of his claws mostly torn off when it got caught on some upholstery while he was running at full speed. He whimpered and cried for a bit, and the wound was tended to, and he soon made a full recovery. But to this day I feel a cold shudder when I remember the experience of picking up the crying dog and seeing what had happened to his poor toe. I could tell it hurt, and my heart went out to him, and on a visceral level I identify with his injury, having torn off a couple toenails in my time, and having stubbed a great many toes to boot. I can’t think of Giuseppe without feeling a sensory recall of combined stubbed toe and torn-off toenail, and it chills my spine and shrinks my testes every damn time. And the incident occurred over a decade ago.

The fascination/revulsion reaction is not actually a sign of a bigoted, under-evolved mind. It has deep roots that go way back to prehistoric instincts of self-preservation. As civilized folks, we are taught not to stare at differences, disabilities, or disfigurement. But most of us will jump, maybe spill our coffee, maybe exclaim out loud when we see something like this, for which we are wholly unprepared, simply because the vast majority of us (pampered bourgeois Westerners or not) don’t see faceless cats every week. And especially ones displaying a wound that looks agonizingly painful and far from healed. The instinct is “Goddamn! That has got to hurt like a sonofabitch! And on such an otherwise cute little fluffball of a kitty, too!” We folks who had this reaction are not necessarily the ones who won’t stop to help a dog we’ve accidentally hit with our car, just because we think it might be too gross. But we’re used to seeing all kinds of nifty and wonderful things here at BoingBoing… and though it is not for us to determine content at this site (we’re just guests, after all), we did not expect to see something that looks for all the world like a gaping, recent, painful wound in the middle of a cat’s face, in a large hi-resolution picture. That kind of image can be found elsewhere on the internet, and certainly isn’t out of place in a linked-to story here on BB. But just because we don’t enjoy stumbling upon the image on one of our favorite sites we visit recreationally several times a day does not mean that we’re selfish churls who demand coddling. Post the picture or hide it, BB; you can do what you want with your blog. Happy mutants come here for many reasons, but being browbeaten into embracing the unfortunate disfigured is not generally one of them. I do hasten to note that Xeni and the other BB people aren’t the ones doing the browbeating.

Nobody wishes ill upon the precious feline, even the guy who jokingly suggested riveting an iron mask to its head (yeah, that was me, in a completely characteristic display of poor taste and insensitivity toward cats… guilty guilty guilty!). We’re all glad the cat enjoys a safe and loving home, and to be honest, even the iron mask gag was meant as a device to protect delicate raw tissues from further injury, not to protect our own delicate sensibilities from visual unpleasantness.

But what the hell… y’all take it as you will.
- travtastic
  
  You should have seen the time when my cat faceplanted onto a glue mouse trap at my mother’s house, years ago. We eventually got it off just fine, but it was easily one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever seen.
Anonymous

But WHAT HAPPENED?
Calimecita

This doesn’t upset or disgust me, it brings tears to my eyes. I’m so glad Chase has a loving family :-)
Besides, the zoologist in me is curious – what kind of accident was it? how does his condition affect his sense of vision, since the eyes don’t seem to be in a normal position? Does he have an upper jaw with teeth, or does he need special food?
I feel a sort of admiration for the people who were optimistic enough to not euthanize him after the accident, as I’m sure more than one person advised them… it’s something that I probably wouldn’t be able to do.
- Quothz
  
  “what kind of accident was it? how does his condition affect his sense of vision, since the eyes don’t seem to be in a normal position? Does he have an upper jaw with teeth, or does he need special food?”
  
  According to the blog, as a young kitten she was hit by a car and left beside the road for days, her vision is (unexpectedly) excellent, and she eats a normal diet.
  - Calimecita
    
    Thanks for the extra information! I didn’t have time earlier to read much at the linked sites.
JohnnyQuest

Agreed! I let out an audible EEEK at my desk. I’m very happy the kitteh is in no pain, but what about the viewers?!?
Will/Nobilis

I expected it to be worse, then again, I have taken care of a cat that was injured in a similar way. (RIP Samhain. . .yes I named a cat that was born on Halloween Samhain.)

Me? I might go cry because I miss that cat, but not for this one. This one is happy where they are from all accounts. Keep it up Chase!
Lobster

I agree with all the others. When I clicked my BoingBoing link I did NOT expect to see something like that staring back at me.
cjp

After the jump, with a strong warning, please. Jeezus. There are kids around.
christopher cee

I’m saddened by the responses to this post. I’m utterly enamored with Chase and have spent the last hour or so perusing his blog. What a wonderful (and well loved) pet.

Had he been pixelated, I don’t know that I would have allowed myself to click through to see him. So thank you Xeni, it’s not a bad thing to be forced out of our comfort zones from time to time.
Ceronomus

Jesus!

After the jump with a warning please! While the massage of “Chase no Face” is a positive one, being suddenly confronted by a mutilated kitten is NOT a Wonderful thing.
agraham999

Eating ham sandwich and open boing boing to see this…Unicorn chaser please.
- Scixual
  
  Speaking of “Chase”. Yes. A unicorn with a face, please.
  
  I feel a bit insensitive about this, but I cannot overcome my squick.
Anonymous

Comments recap:
1. A bunch of people posted messages of the type “this triggered my yuch factor! Now I am angry! It was wrong of BB to display it upfront!”.

2. They then got negative reactions.

3. Some of the first posters then came back for a defense, saying that their reaction is automatic and does not make them bad people at all.

I have an objection to THAT reply: it misses the point. See, the problem with the first round of “hide it!” reactions wasn’t that those people where having this or that disgust or shock reaction. That’s a fact of body and mostly beyond human control. It happens. But the problem is that a bunch of people with that reaction then saw it fit and proper to, and very intentionally choose to, post “demands” of how the picture should be moved, pixeled or whatever. Those demands are not automatic. You could instead have chosen to learn something else from the shocker effect here. About yourself, our expectations of animals to be “cute”, our knee jerk tendencies to call for “euthanization” when it actually isn’t in the (now less cute) animal’s best interest.
joeposts

Aww. I’m glad he has a good home. Looks exactly like my cat, um, except for the lack of a face.

I wonder what a vet charges for a kitty face transplant?
Ratdog

I’ma going to go hug my own kitty for an extra long time.
chris

This is what happens when the Predator mates with the common cat.
Alvis

*compares against picture of normal cat*

Hmm… I can’t help but take issue with the claim that Chase is “completely healed”.
Phikus

The thing I choose to take from seeing this, beyond the “poor kitty!” is that it is a reminder that our companion animals are fragile creatures. I am glad someone is caring for Chase if he has quality of life (and he seems to) and I am grateful for my two wonderful kitties and their intact faces.
dross1260

all cats are grey in the dark.
unfortunately, cannot afford the antihistamine.
oh, and the picture, get over it.
Shoomlah

Stepping in to agree with the “after the jump” requests. I am completely thrilled to hear about happy stories about ugly animals, but some sort of warning would be nice so it’s more about the story and less about the shock value.

-C
knoxblox

Aw, poor little guy.

He looks like my late cat Moo, except for y’know, the face. I hope he gets regular brushing, because fur like that is going to mat something fierce if you don’t keep up with it.
Anonymous

When this kitty gets pissed, does her face open up, Predator-style? :/
Anonymous

Yeah, all you complainers are just being a bunch of, um… pussies.

OTOH, I do think that Chase needs a Vader helmut – just for the cool factor.

(to the tune of Vader’s theme) meow meow meow meow ma-meow…
Rob

At first I was grossed out. Then I laughed, now I think she’s kinda cute in a lovecraftian kinda way.
youdiejoe

I have been faceless kitteh rolled! I will add to the metoo chorus, after the jump, please. …where is that bottle of brain bleach…
asbuuu

Lets see how many consecutive boing boing comments it takes for Xeni to move the picture! Please now! Is this what we get for asking for no more Sarah Palin posts? I take it all back. I take Sarah Palin back.

With that said, I hope it finds a nice home.

Both Sarah Palin and the cat.
Melted Crayons

I *really* did not want to see this pic. Please do not do this again bb!
Hagrid

That triggered my “scary face” limbic system reaction, I’m OK now.
Poor little tyke. Oh that looks painful. Glad t’hear he’s doing well.
joeposts

LET’S ALL HATE THE UGLY CAT! DON’T WANT TO SEE THE UGLY CAT! DON’T BURDEN ME WITH YOUR UGLINESS!!!
- bklynchris
  
  Amen, really people are going to harsh on a cat? One, really, fugly cat… That is just the way he is and we were warned. I feel bad for the cat but I am not filled with enraged repulsion.
Rob

And for the record I’d rather see no face kitteh than Sarah palin
- igpajo
  
  “And for the record I’d rather see no face kitteh than Sarah palin”
  
  LOL! I’m totally with you on that one.
Miss Cellania

I wrote about Chase a couple of years ago, and thought pretty hard abut how to present her to unsuspecting readers. I ended up using a stylized portrait from a fan who is an artist, and presented a warning with links. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17193 I’ve become a fan of this kitty and her whole family. I love how the other pets in the home accept her completely.
JoshP

@hundredsofthousands
i’d think that instinctual revulsion comes from the initial need to create an emotional barrier against physical loss. Prior to whenever last week, nothing that mess up injured would have survived. Also nogs at whoever thought we should chip in to have this guy get a facial prosthetic, al la Feud.
Poor kitty, poor eyes. poor kitty.
The Thompson Five

No.
rayven

OK, I LOVE Chase, as I have been over to the blog a while back and recall his story and his lovely humans…. but even with the familiarity, it was a tad “OMG!!!!” when I came to visit BB. Eeeek!
Lab Monkey

I hope the unicorn chaser is worth it.
Soliloquy

D’aww, her is just a zombie kitty, her can’t help it. I feel the urge to track down some mouse brains for her to nibble on.

And yeah, lotus boob is somehow way worse.
planettom

Unicorn chaser, with a face, stat!
Anonymous

And it’s blurred, now. That’s rather sad.

I still don’t see how this differs from encountering someone with a disfigured face in public. Boingboing, being on the Internet, is a publicly encountered entity, just like a person with a disfigured face. Why do some of you insist that the public world must *blur* itself to suit your preferences? Sorry, but thankfully the world doesn’t work that way.
deldred

Poor kitty. :(
wormbaby

Wait do all of you “after the jump” folks do the same thing when say a burn victim or someone else disfigured walks into a restaurant? They used to be able to kick them out for disturbing the normals. Sad to see that that attitude is still so pervasive. Didn’t your mommies teach you better than that.
- piminnowcheez
  
  No, you don’t get to shame people for reacting aversely to his. The treatment we owe living human beings and animals is unrelated to how we react to an unexpected, shocking inanimate image. Ride your high horse right out of here.
  - wormbaby
    
    lol Please don’t transfer your shame onto me. Your offended that’s your right. When you own a popular blog you can decide what goes on the front page. The whole point of Chase’s online presence is to provide a teachable moment to people about disfigurement and disabilities.
Bok

What did we ever do to deserve this?!?

(Fully comprehending the irony of the cat thinking the same thing.)
anansi133

yuck.

I guess I must not be cool enough to read boing boing without getting stomach-twistingly ill.

Seriously? Is this just too furry to merit a cut?
Jim O’Connell

I am horrified to see this here on top of Boingboing, with no warning, no option for the viewer to pass on seeing this horror.

I’m glad that the poor creature isn’t in any physical pain, but even with the cutesy first-person voice of the writing this is pure exploitation on the part of everyone involved.

Xeni, this is a new personal low for you and you should be ashamed.
- bklynchris
  
  Please say you are being sarcastic. Why is she being low? Do you wake up every day in a bed of just bloomed daisies? Skip to work on a rainbow? Have perfect skin, low body fat ratio, Ivy League ed? Aryan perfect feature? I mean, WTF?!
  
  Unless, you think she put this here to gross out approximately 63% of the commenters? I think she put this here just to flush out all the haters. I’m not saying the cat is not ugly just that it didn’t ask to look in a way that would upset people’s delicate sensibilities.
  
  And, btw-I despise cats but I my hate is equal opportunity.
  - travtastic
    
    What’s wrong with cats?
    - teapot
      
      People who have big egos seem to hate them.
      
      Anyway, if you can’t take the heat, stay off the internet. This is a bit hard for me to look at because it is similar to what my poor kitty looked like last year after some useless asshole hit him with a car, but he didn’t make it.
      
      If I knew who did it I would probably be in jail (or on the run) now. Seriously.
- TenInchesTaller
  
  haha. are you an only child?
Anonymous

I don’t know about you all, but I would adopt that cat without a second thought if she needed a home. If you visit her blog, you’ll see that she’s obviously a sweet cat with other pets and family that love her.

I also assume that if any of you were in some sort of face disfiguring accident, you wouldn’t want to receive the Elephant Man treatment at your local Starbucks (or whatever).

So, ugly humans go on being ugly humans and cats go on being beautiful. Typical…
Anonymous

Heartbreaking. :(
phillamb168

Xeni, just pour info, the boingboing RSS feed INCLUDES THE JUMP. I.e., there is NO OPTION to not see this if you’re browsing from google reader. Please don’t assume posting something after the jump means people do not necessarily have to see it – that, or adjust the site’s RSS settings so it doesn’t include the entire post.

:-(
- Mitch_
  
  You’re a big boy. Reading the whole post will help you process what you see.
  - Ugly Canuck
    
    Indeed: was it not Nietzsche who once wrote, that the effect of seeing the ugly may be measured using a dynamometer?
    
    Fortunately for us, though, beauty, and its opposite, are in actuality found to reside in the eye of the beholder – rather than in whatever it is that they are beholding.
    
    Or have I missed something?
    
    Have the scientists come up with an objective way of distinguishing between the beautiful and the ugly?
    
    Or are we yet still reduced to the necessity of asking people to state their opinions, to determine which is which?
    - Anonymous
      
      Actually, scientists have discovered how to measure beauty. It was a side effect of research on facial recognition software. What researches discovered is that when they looked at the eigenfaces (a mathematical composite) of a group of test subjects, the one representing average was always very pretty. So they spent some time investigating and found, yes, people rank faces that are very close to average and symmetrical as beautiful. It’s handled by the brain subconsciously, so we don’t even know we are doing it.
      
      Because image recognition software mathematically calculates deviation from average, you can “measure” someones beauty. And while individual opinion may vary, the average score from a group of people scoring beauty correlates very well with the computer score.
      
      So ironically, beautiful people are the most average.
      
      But attraction depends a bit on deviation from average.
      
      Separate research on what constitutes feminine and masculine shows that particular features that people think of depend on the culture, but are derived from real physical differences. And if a little is good, then that culture figures a lot is better. Think about what makes women feminine. Women have smaller feet so in China that led to binding feet. Women have longer necks, which led to neck lengthening in some African tribes. Women have larger breasts than men, which has led to implants. So it’s possible to create an objective scale of a subjective criteria. For feminine, masculine, and with animals, cuteness.
      
      Poor Chase would score poorly with both systems, which is why people might have a gut reaction that differs from their intellectual side. He has features that are as far from average as you’re likely to see (beauty scale) and go in the wrong direction for cute (cuteness scale).
      
      For those of you with mixed opinions, you literally are thinking with two different parts of your brain. The automatic parts are saying “He’s not right!” and the thinking parts are going “He’s ok!” An interesting chance to see your own brain in action.
futnuh

Xeni, very poor judgement call putting this front and centre. If I wanted to gag while web browsing over dinner, I’d visit rotten.com.
JIMWICh

Put me on the list of Happy Mutants that love and accept sweet Chase No Face unconditionally as is.
numcrun

A LITTLE DISTURBING? I blanched pretty good and I am mostly unshockable. MUCH Better warning required.
Mr. Winka

Jeebus, Jobus and Mary! How many times I gotta tell you? Stop screwing around with the teleporter! It’s not ready yet!!
IronyElemental

Level 5 end boss in Dead Space 2.
Anonymous

poor cat,I wish I could do something to help :(
hpnsack

ahaha holy shit
penguinchris

Since there were a couple mentions of goatse, tubgirl etc. I thought I would throw out a warning regarding the one apparently called “hive tit”. Forgive the long explanation, but you’ll see why I’m bothering to give the warning if you read through. I’d never heard of this one by that name until this comment thread.

I’ve seen all the well-known ones – goatse, tubgirl, lemon party, etc. I knew enough to not watch 2 girls 1 cup, but saw a screen cap later, which confirmed my suspicions about what it was. I’ve seen tons of rotten.com style stuff – gruesome death and dismemberment and so on.

All of these things are awful to see. Many people, I’m sure, have trouble forgetting them – personally, I can only really recall what goatse looks like, because the guy had a funny website that was worth reading (for certain values of “worth”) and there have been a lot of parodies. None of those things really bother me. To be on topic, this cat image doesn’t bother me. I don’t want to stare at it or anything, but it does look kind of cute, in a cartoon monster kind of way.

However. I came across what I believe is the “hive tit” somewhere on the internet approximately 11 or 12 years ago, when I was maybe 12. It haunts me to this day. There’s a certain unusual plant with seed pods that I saw frequently in Thailand that nearly made me gag upon sight – every time – because it viscerally reminded me of the video. Just thinking about it now is making me nauseous. Seeing breasts (only certain types, thankfully) will remind me of it and make me nauseous (not my girlfriend’s! those are great). I don’t know for sure if what’s now known as “hive tit” is actually the same thing – 12 years ago was well before things became memes with names and so on – but I think I can be fairly certain based on the name.

So if you’ve seen the well-known ones and are curious about “hive tit”, I urge you – do not give in to your curiosity. I realize of course that a post like this will only increase curiosity, but you’ve been warned, anyway.
- Pasketti
  
  @penguinchris: It’s better known as “lotus breast”.
facetedjewel

I want to thank BB for this opportunity to see an aspect of living I would otherwise miss, exactly because it isn’t pretty. This makes me doubly grateful for the protection and social acceptance skin and fur provide. I’m glad Chase wasn’t euthanized and has loving friends to tends to his needs.
Anonymous

I’m with wormbaby. This little kitty is neither horrifying nor disgusting. A little unexpected, perhaps, but certainly no worse than what you might voluntarily subject yourself to in a movie theatre or on tv. This cat possesses more moxie than most of these posters could ever hope to have. As for the innocent kids…they’ll be fine, I assure you. Good on ya Xeni. Don’t move the pic.
hundredsofthousands

take a sec to recognize our remarkable evolutionary get-away-gross-thing reaction here. powerful stuff, that instinct.
Chuck

Count me among the people NOT complaining about the pic. That cat has been living this way for five or six years now — I’d seem pretty whiny in comparison if I complained about merely glimpsing its photo.
optuser

My wife will cry for hours if she sees this. Please blur/bar so she can return to BB sooner than 40 posts.
Jack

Whoever ratted out on those mobsters they arrested today is most likely going to be called â€œChase No Faceâ€ if they run into anybody they wronged.

Also, agree with the â€œjumpâ€ photo option.
retrojoe

I’m not a cat person but she’s nothing I wouldn’t quickly get used to. I take exception to the idea that this is somehow worse than things like goatse; there’s no feel good story with those pictures.
- robulus
  
  I take exception to the idea that this is somehow worse than things like goatse; there’s no feel good story with those pictures.
  
  I don’t know, each to his own…
EscapingTheTrunk

Everyone horrified by the disfigurement should be equally horrified contemplating *how the fuck this happened*. What terrible accident befell Chase? Could it happen to your pet? Can you prevent it? Those are the truly important questions here, not those regarding Xeni or BB’s editorial policy.

Oh, and Chase should really be re-named Harvey.
roboton

That, I think, epitomizes the idea of the “happy mutant”. All you weak and “afraid-of-the-ugly- disfigured kitty” people need to get over your first-world problems STAT. Seriously, STFU and GTF Over it.
- piminnowcheez
  
  Would you say that moral outrage at the “weakness” of blog commenters complaining about being shocked by a graphic image also counts as a first-world problem? Just trying to clarify.
Hanglyman

Poor kitty! But in a way she’s lucky… at least she has loving owners who will care for her despite her disfigurement. Some people will put their cat up for adoption (or simply abandon it) if they break up with their significant other, if it sheds, or if it doesn’t match their new couch.
Swizzlebat

Sweet Jesus, that must have been one heck of an accident. Poor kitteh.
Anonymous

new title:
Joseph Meow-ick, The Elephant Cat
g
EeyoreX

Like some others, IÂ´m just surprised that Chase haven’t become a bigger internet meme allready. I mean, It’s a fluffy kitteh with his own blog, with a squick factor, and a tragic backstory. By all known rules of viral, Chase should be in everybodys inbox by now! He should be king of teh interwebs! So why hasn’t that happened?

I think what’s missing is that we still need to find out Chase’s political alignment. Is he a born-again conservative democrat or a rouge liberal republican?
Without that information, how can we even tell what we’re looking at when we see a picture of Chase?
roboton

And furthermore, if you are loading up BoingBoing with kids around you need to seriously rethink your parenting strategies and/or priorities. (says a father of three who DOES NOT load this page around his children)
- SamSam
  
  And furthermore, if you are loading up BoingBoing with kids around you need to seriously rethink your parenting strategies and/or priorities. (says a father of three who DOES NOT load this page around his children)
  
  Wow. I had no idea Boing Boing was considered so harmful to children. Besides this cat, what exactly has been posted on Boing Boing’s front page (above the fold, as it were) that you think might be dangerous for a child to see?
  - chgoliz
    
    I know: I didn’t bother replying at the time, but my kids see BB posts all the time. Kids aren’t hothouse flowers. They’re in training to be awesome adults.
Beezy

Good lord! A little warning next time, please.
Susannah Breslin

No Face Kitteh is a perfect example of jolie laide. Those who protest the ugly in others reveal the ugly that lies within.
- social_maladroit
  
  No Face Kitteh is a perfect example of jolie laide. Those who protest the ugly in others reveal the ugly that lies within.
  
  That cat’s not “ugly.” It’s (he’s? she’s?) been disfigured in an accident. There’s a difference. Posting this on the front page, with no warning, is only different than posting any other gory picture on the front page as a matter of scale. We get that its looks don’t make it unloveable; that’s not the point.
social_maladroit

That really is one amazing cat. It’s also amazing that they can keep her eyes from drying out.

(Thanks for the front page picture pixellation. Do vets and human doctors have to become inured to that sort of thing?)
Tensegrity

I don’t mind being surprised by a disfigured kitty. There’s a dude in my neighborhood who has a severely burned face. I mean *severely*. No one has a responsibility to warn me when I see him. It’s my responsibility to deal with it if I do.

Not that it matters, but by all accounts he is a great guy who leads a very happy life.

Go Chase No Face!
Anonymous

I’d found Chase’s blog about a month ago (don’t recall how) and I must admit to being a bit fascinated with her. It drives my husband nuts but I’m just so relieved that she’s being well taken care of, is happy and not in pain that I keep visiting her site.

The thing that Chase’s story provides me most, though (and most unexpectedly) is hope and compassion for my fellow humans. We’re all responsible for a lot of awful things and it’s really easy to get cynical. Knowing that people worked as hard as they did to make sure this unfortunate cat is happy and well gives me hope for our species as a whole.
social_maladroit

First the front-paged picture of the bull being tortured and now this. I don’t mind being shocked if I’m warned first, but “in your face” doesn’t make for a Happy Mutant. Thanks, /b/oing/b/oing.
IronyElemental

Had to do it. http://tinyurl.com/4q29gv8
Anonymous

At first I skipped past the post, knowing I probably wouldn’t have the stomach for a mutilated cat.
But I decided for this not to be yet another inconvenient truth I can look away from. I’m now in awe of this cat and her parents (Smiths?) who are the reason I can sleep well tonight. It feels good to know there are loving people and homes for cats who don’t fit society’s standards of normal. (and yes, I did donate to his medicine fund!)
Anonymous

I dare not click on the ‘Happy Mutants’ Tag!!!

Really BB? Are there really more posts with that tag?
piminnowcheez

Hahaha. I have to appreciate the instant karma on myself of having to see bugeyed kitty over and over again every time I elect to continue pointless arguments with another comment.
vancouvergrrl

I already knew about Chase and so clicked on the link realizing what I would see. The first-person emotional manipulation is fairly common among people who create blogs and facebook sites for their pets (and despite being a crazy cat lady, I’m not one of them), but you can’t fault the people who’ve given Chase as good a life as possible. I agree the link title could’ve been a little more explanatory, but I think Chase looks loved and well cared for and like all cats enjoys holding office supplies hostage.
Anonymous

Introduced this cat to /b/. They are all a-cryin’.
prof_jellis

Yah, I found the original picture pretty shocking, too. But discomfort frequently preceeds important learning, and sometimes stuff looks shocking. Grow up folks! That said, I appreciate the pixellated version for the folks who would be deeply troubled. But the REAL antidote to being troubled by the picture is scanning cute little Chase’s blog. She’s a perfectly happy normal kitty, with other critters in her family (another cat and two rambunctious italian greyhounds) who don’t seem to have any problem with her. And her human family is doing a great thing sharing her, via the blog and with her work as a therapy animal.

An early blog entry gives a bit more of her story:
http://chasenoface.blogspot.com/2007/09/introduction.html

Wasn’t there a similarly disturbing picture of a girl whose nose had been violently cut off on the cover of Time recently? Yeah
http://tinyurl.com/33ka5kl
Shocking things happen. And creatures survive and even thrive …
Nicky G

There are some SERIOUSLY self-righteous folks on bb these days. I’m glad your sense of self-satisfaction at finding the beauty in Chase’s face lets you sleep smugly and well at night!

Me — I would NOT let that cat give me kitty kisses. Just sayin’.
randyman

I’m glad the little guy has a loving home. That’s beautiful.
IamInnocent

Well, I don’t comment much if any anymore but this one prompts me to say something: this happens all the time to all sort of beings, animal or human. That we don’t see them more is the surprise. Think about it.

Thanks Xeni. You’ve proven your heart, no irony.
LazarWolf

You know what? I’m glad you didn’t give us the option of ‘seeing more after the jump.’ While it did shock me and, I’ll admit, gross me out a bit, it was a bit like jumping into a swimming pool; better than me wondering whether I should click or not.

The cat has an amazing story, and I’m glad you shared. I have a kitty of my own who went through the dryer a couple years ago (a total accident). Luckily, she isn’t terribly disfigured; just a bit of a bacon ear and the inability to regulate her body temperature like most mammals (she’s basically one step up from being cold-blooded). But she’s the sweetest, most loyal animal I have ever had, and really one of my favorite living things.
Anonymous

He’s awesome…what a champion survivor. If we didn’t have a zoo at home already, he’d be more than welcome to come here. Love his little heart<3
theawesomerobot

Oh hey there, here kitty kitAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
billster

You only normally only see the “before” picture:

http://ifaab.tripod.com/2006/monkey,kitten%20email.jpg
Anonymous

Am I the only one who felt a sense of warmth and sympathy for the kitty? It may be disfigured, but it’s still a loving cat. A bit disturbing, but we’re all open-minded, compassionate adults. Right?
westie

Chase No Face is absolutely adorable! I can only imagine what a great personality she has.
As for the revulsion we read about, of course it is natural, but best kept to yourself.
When we finally make contact with our first citizen of the stars, they will almost certainly not fit our framework of acceptable proportions and symmetry!
Sawyertrice

So you know when you order a whole red snapper from say, a thai place, and they bring you this big, red fried fish, head and all, with milky pustular eyes?

Well, that cat has that same cooked-look in his eyes.

::shivers::
Anonymous

My immediate reaction when I saw this posting:

aww, what a cutie.

This warmed my heart. Thanks for posting it, Xeni. A sentient being, just like all of us, striving to live and grow. Very touching, and made my day.
Anonymous

That image is the most upsetting, horrifying one I’ve ever seen on Boing Boing. I feel for the pet and owner, but there’s just no getting past the deformity. Everything that can go wrong with a face has happened to this cat: the eyes are horribly wrong, the missing snout is horribly wrong, and the overbite is horribly wrong. The owner is a saint to tend to this feline. My heart goes out to both of them.
phreatic

I think my initial reaction was based on feeling like the cat must be in pain despite the description and seeing an animal in pain always makes me feel horrible. Fortunately I then clicked on the blog and by a couple photos in of the kitteh doing normal, crazy kitteh things, my brain was convinced he wasn’t in pain and I was finding him pretty cute. Then the nerd in me was thinking that he now just looks like some awesome, fluffy space-pet of the future.
- fireinwinter
  
  “Then the nerd in me was thinking that he now just looks like some awesome, fluffy space-pet of the future.”
  
  This.
  
  Also, I have to say my initial reaction was “GAH!” – but by the whole can’t-look-away-from-a-car-wreck factor of human psychology, I ended up reading about Chase, finding the blog, etc.
  
  It breaks my heart (in a good way) that the family Chase is a part of is so loving and wonderful. Such a sad thing to have happened – and yet, wouldn’t it have been more sad to just put her down? I’m sure plenty of people would say it was “for the best” if we were seeing a post-mortem picture.
  
  I think Chase is awesome, startling at first, perhaps, but awesome.
JohnnyQuest

To wormbaby, Anon, and others who compare Chase to a burn victim, and suggest that our reaction to this picture somehow indicates an insensitivity to those types of people, I’d like to point out that burn victims do not SUDDENLY APPEAR eighteen inches from your face!
If they did, I’m pretty sure my reaction would be the same: “Don’t do that!”
This doesn’t mean I don’t have sympathy, acceptance or even love for them (or Chase), it simply means (as others have said) that I have an unpleasant visceral reaction to an unexpected distressing image. I’d be willing to bet that even the most enlightened among you would be a bit shocked if Chase jumped into your lap without any warning or foreknowledge…
baph

Interestingly, that other Chase, JP Morgan, has never been able to save much face, either.

I. . . I’m sorry.
Anonymous

I think Chase is cute. Looks like an anime cat. I’m not feeling smug, I don’t know why I’m not repulsed. Maybe I just don’t know this cat well enough to feel any sort of reaction. I can’t stand to touch my dog’s weird bumps or watch my husband squeeze stuff out of his nipples, nor can I stand to listen to my mom discuss her injuries (I feel like vomiting), but when it comes to other people’s (or other animal’s) interesting features or injuries, I don’t have that kind of response. I grew up in a school with kids with very severe disabilities and see past it or see it objectively maybe.
Anonymous

Here’s some eye bleach if you need it:
(PNSFW)
http://eyebleach.com/
VICTOR JIMENEZ

Glittering Unicorn! Save me!
Kimmo

I think this may be a better version of the image to use on the front page…

This one would have been enough to sate my curiosity and I wouldn’t have looked at the disturbing complete image – I’d have known I didn’t want to see it.

I tried to strike a balance between enough info to see how bad it is, and little enough to avoid a retch response… I think I nailed it.
Mitch_

I don’t resent the lack of a warning but the picture makes me feel sad for the cat. I’d like to see a video of her purring.
- robulus
  
  You wouldn’t like it. It’s gurgly.
robulus

Quick. Better deploy the British Granny Cloud.
skeletoncityrepeater

It’s not that disgusting, people. It’s a touching story and the picture is grotesque, not obscene. This survival story is a ‘Wonderful Thing’.

(I see that the picture has not been taken down and I hope it stays that way)
Allen Garvin

Oh, Chase, I came across her blog a couple of years ago, and was utterly fascinated. Obviously as mammals (or mammal/avian/reptile/amphibian’s) we’re conditioned to look for visual cues that tell us other critters are like us… and when they differ from this programmed reaction, we are repulsed or alienated. It’s hard to look look at her, but, intellectually, I’m cheered that she lives in a home where she is loved and pampered.

Also, her fur colorings are very similar to my cat Eenie, so that also affects my opinion… I really wanna go Awww but it’s hard to get over the instinctual, non-rational recoil from her appearance.
vettekaas

Wow! I clicked to read the comments thinking that they would be like “oh yeah I know that cat! he’s so awesome! yay!!” And saw instead “I don’t want to see ugly things! What if my child accidentally saw and UGLY THING?” Just to let you know, I went to this beautiful creature’s blog and watch him playing with a toy mouse. There were child noises in the background. The child didn’t seem particularly traumatized. I’m sure your children could handle it much better than you. They have not yet developed the ability to hate things that are different from the norm for no particular reason.
- Anonymous
  
  In the 1930s, my mother was raised by her great-aunt, who was considerably more disfigured than this cat. She stayed in the farmhouse and cared for everyone’s children, because adults were horrified at her missing lips and nose and exposed portions of skull, but the kids didn’t mind and loved her just the same.
  
  My mother has the ability to completely look past anyone’s appearance and judge them on the content of their character, and I think that’s a great gift.
- robulus
  
  Yeah, no you’d be surprised. They are instinctively freaked out by this sort of shit.
- Anonymous
  
  I THINK ITS TERRIABLE ALL THE NASTY COMMENTS ADULTS R MAKING , U PPL MAKING THESE COMMENTS MAY NOT B THE PRETTIEST THING , DO U ALL SCARE HUMAN LIFE , U SHOULD B ASHAMED , CHASE IS A BEAUTIFUL GIRL , I <3 YOU CHASE !!!
Anonymous

most beautiful cat ever
Anonymous

So many perfectly healthy pets are euthanized in the US every year for want of homes. I wish that all of the folks posting complaints about having to see Chase’s picture would make a donation to their local animal shelter if they do not have the courage and commitment (or the time, or the money, or if they are allergic, or their apartment doesn’t allow pets, etc. ad nauseam) to help an animal the way Chase’s loving people did, and continue to do.
Anonymous

Cat: “Im a happy kitty and hope to help other humans feel just as great about themselves and realize that not everyone looks perfect and that is OK.”

Lots of commenters: “Hide the photo of the hideous cat’s face!”

If I had a facial disfigurement I think I’d find this whole thing rather sad. Boing Boing’s decision to hide the cat photo immediately after the cat’s message of hope is a shame.

The way to change attitudes to facial disfigurement is through familiarity. It’s the only way to combat the strong initial response of our brain to faces that look different.

In London a charity put up posters all over the tube showing portaits of people with a facial disfigurement. It was a beautiful campaign. Here’s the link: http://www.changingfaces.org.uk/downloads/All%203%20ads.pdf

Those of you who prefer not to see disfigurement over lunch, I encourage you to look.
olmsteader

Common now folks. You show Sarah Palin’s face on a regular basis, but you can’t show this? Bless his furry little heart. For all the haters, I suggest you look at your face in mirror after taking a couple tabs of acid. Beauty is only familiarity.
blueelm

Oh this post made me cry a little. Poor baby :(

I hope some one adopted him. It doesn’t sound like his maintenance needs would really be that bad.

I’ve known people with facial injuries that don’t look that different from what I see there. So long as the skin is closed, and breathing isn’t impaired, there isn’t pain from the disfigurement so much.
RumorsofmyDemise

Where the frack is my unicorn chaser!??!
Anonymous

poor lil guy. hope he gets everything he wants and non stop pets.
blueelm

Oh I see the blog now so I guess the kitty has a home at least. That’s good.
gwailo_joe

I came late to the Japanese porn er um No Face Kitteh fandango, but more than a hundred comments, wow.

Two major schools of thought: ‘OMG OMG it’s. . .Hideous! Make it go awaaay!’

and ‘So what? Be A Man! You shoulda seen MY face last week when etc etc’

And of course: ‘poor damn feline, you sho is fugly but Awwwww nonetheless’

That’s my take: the underbite fangs are hecka cute, but open nasal cavity and bulbous crack-frog eyes are pretty ugh

Still. . .a meme could be started. No Face everything. . .how about a No Face unicorn?? Just get a flayed horse head and jam a narwhal horn on it and presto!!

Or. . .not.
- The Mudshark
  
  You want a flayed horse head? I can get you a flayed horse head, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don’t wanna know about it, believe me.
  Hell, I can get you a flayed horse head by 3 o’clock this afternoon… with a narwhal horn on it. These fucking amateurs…
Anonymous

I cannot unsee this
TenInchesTaller

I for one think Chase is really cute.
technosean

Bunch of cowards, all of you, who made negative comments. Go away and take your judgment with you.

If that kitty can stand to have that face, then I can stand to look at it. That’s a happy kitty, and I am happy for him.

You should celebrate that. Kitty has a happy life with such a setback.

I hope and pray that you never have someone that *you* love have such a setback. For you will be the ass that actually does make their life miserable.

The only sad thing here is those enact judgment and their small minds.
johnfoster

sadly, CAT.SE is not available.
BadCat!

Chase No Face has always reminded me of a Furby…
krispyD

I can has face now?
kevinupstairs

Blech… Add me to the list of people who didn’t appreciate seeing this on the main page. Face it, it’s a little too in your face.
narddogz

God Dammit.
user23

thread tl;dr

fake photo is beyond fake.

come on!
Shart Tsung

I just clicked on ‘Chase No Face’ from my Boing Boing RSS list. Upon seeing that picture I almost threw up.

Why? Just tell me why.
Anonymous

He’s beautiful to me. It’s all about love, people. Get some.
- Anonymous
  
  Why is wanting a warning before a disturbing picture “not love?” I’m a cat lover and an animal freak, and when I saw this picture I was moved and encouraged to read on… but when it pops up out of nowhere on an RSS feed… I’d kind of like a little warning. It’s not about censorship or being a hippy… it’s about preparing yourself for an emotional reaction.
cjp

I have a forensic pathology background. I am not afraid of the grotesque or the malformed. I have defleshed body parts that would make most people lose their lunch for the next ten years. But this is not an unfortunately afflicted child or adult who deserves a different kind of compassion. Anyone who infers that someone who does not wish to view such a photo of an animal unexpectedly is somehow morally *less* is a complete no-mind. This is an upsetting photo for many people, period.

If it’s not upsetting for you, fine. I have a few photos of a wayward foot in a rubber boot you may be interested in. I’ll email them to you around breakfast time.
owza

Am I the only one who was not in the slightest bit disturbed by that photo? I doubt it’s a fake, trauma like that could happen easily, for example when a lump of metal travelling at 40mph hit it.
strnj

strong image but the cat’s stance points to a certain contentment & joy to be alive; in whatever self-awareness cats possess (or my own anthropomorphic delusion) the cat doesn’t perceive itself as grotesque (maybe another uniquely human value judgmen?t). @ those revulsed: would you be so disturbed (or honest in your discomfort) if the image was a human? See nobility in any life or commit aesthetic prejudice? How does it feel to be the monster …
- chgoliz
  
  strong image but the cat’s stance points to a certain contentment & joy to be alive
  
  That was my reaction, too. I can see (almost) everyone else’s viewpoints, but for me, the body language of the cat made it clear that she’s OK…and that’s the bottom line for me.
IamInnocent

Come to think of it: do only humans feel repulsion? How do the other cats react, if at all?
cjp

And, for the record – it’s not “ugly” that is upsetting people. It’s the visceral understanding that this kind of injury means suffering. As humans, we dislike looking upon suffering of all kinds.
- Donald Petersen
  
  As humans, we dislike looking upon suffering of all kinds.
  
  Thank you for saying so succinctly what I was trying to say in my weighty disquisition above.
  - anansi133
    
    There’s still a heartwarming story in the text, and once I find enough brain-bleach to come crawling back to the site, it’s a pretty nifty story.
    
    I guess it’s supposed to be a one-two sucker punch: clobber you with the gross, then sweet talk you with teh kyoot.
    
    Only this really comes off more like a 4chan shocker troll, with a heartwarming chaser (that would *still* be heartwarming without the troll imagery!) that’s supposed to make us question our aesthetics.
    
    I think it’s more likely that kitten humor and lolcats just jumped the shark.
Hagrid

Recoil in gut-wrenching horror.

Request a Unicorn Chaser, please. Will read text later.
Anonymous

What cjp said @90.
I’ve seen ol’ Chase before, but I never thought to submit pics or anything to Boing Boing. Just never crossed my mind.

Personally, I’m not so sure I would’ve let Chase carry on after whatever accident robbed her of her face. I’d probably have the vet euthanize her. However, Chase’s owner has done a fantastic job of caring for this little kitty. All the pics and write-ups I’ve seen portray the cat as being about as happy as any other cat could be.
ethancoop

Actually, I was more horrified by the writing in the about Chase section than the picture.
- Chentzilla
  
  Where is this “About” section, by the way? Does it say what exactly happened to Chase?
Ceronomus

Thing is, I still don’t know, what happened to the poor thing?
Derek C. F. Pegritz

Jesus. What a bunch of candy-asses ’round here! Like these fools never saw a Beautiful Mutant before!
Michael Smith

“…another problem was when there was interference on the line. Some passengers came out the other end looking like nothing on Earth and very little on Venus or Mars…”

- Travel by Wire
Arthur C Clarke
~ 1945
hassenpfeffer

Okay, the pic needs to be on an “after the jump” section, NOT front and center on the main page. I just vurped a little.
- Donald Petersen
  
  “a little”??
  - hassenpfeffer
    
    I have amazing self-control of my epiglottis.
    - Donald Petersen
      
      I have amazing self-control of my epiglottis.
      
      You must. I, on the other hand, have a steaming mess on my keyboard.
      
      Having recovered slightly, I wonder if some talented steampunky maker could fashion a tiny iron mask for Cat Vader here. Maybe with some pop-rivets, and self-irrigating goggles.
      - piminnowcheez
        
        I was just going to comment to add to the “put it below the fold” clamor, but your comment was a much better response. Nice one.
        
        But yeah, this was bad form. It doesn’t say anything about the lovability of this cat or the compassion of Boingboing readers to acknowledge that severe facial disfigurement, whether on people or cats, is shocking. We have a considerable patch of brain real estate, after all, dedicated to processing faces. So why would you want to shock us like that?
Snig

I hope it gets a good home. I have an even more disturbing mental image of Nick Cage/John Travolta running around somewhere with kitty’s original face.