A homeless kitten who is up for adoption at a Tyneside rehoming centre is the first to be seen by an animal charity's vets who is neither male nor female.
Hope, a tabby and white cat originally thought to be female when admitted to a Cats Protection rescue centre in Warrington, was found to have no external sex organs. Vets said they have seen hermaphrodite cats, who have both male and female sex organs, but they are extremely rare.
However, Hope has no sex organs at all - externally or internally. Cats Protection's senior field veterinary officer Fiona Brockbank said it appears to be a case of agenesis - the failure of an organ to develop - which neither she not her colleagues have ever seen before.
