agreed. But it would be interesting to have them both (original & clone) around at the same time to see what would happen!

Happy holidays!!

true. they'd probably both die of anxiety.

now that i look at the then and now pictures i've posted (they're pop-ups, btw), i realize that Oybean has not changed that much...his face is just fuller...

you mean, fatter?

the woman was on GMA this morning, and i think charlie asked her if it would be better spending the $50k on a pet rescue if she loved cats that much. i don't remember the answer though. too groggy and otherwise occupied.

and i guess that's the age old question, right? genes or environment? i say environment, but that's just me. and genes probably pre-dispose people to certain things.

cat question. When you go away for a few days what do you do with your cats?

no, not FATTER. just more adult :P

i think it's a balance of nature and nurture.

jeff, i usually leave them home alone. if more than 2 or 3 days, i have a friend nearby check in on them and scoop their poop.

One of my cats, Bruno, is thirteen. He's an amazing cat, and I love him so much. However, when his time comes, I could never consider cloning him. Any cat lover/owner knows cats are unique, and I have real difficulty in seeing the benefit in cloning a pet. Even if you could raise the cat to have similar personality traits, it just wouldn't be the same cat, and you'd *know*.

I know my 50k would go to the cat shelter...

Wow, talk about taking "crazy cat lady" to a new level!

There's no way her cat will have the same personality (cats have personality?) and idiosyncracies as Nicky version 1.0.

Almost as disgusting as when crazy rich people leave their estate to their pet.

"Hey Mr. Whiskers, I've been your limo driver for 5 years now and I was wondering if I could get an $.08 raise? My kid is going to college and..."

"Meow!"

"But Mr. Whiskers!" *sob*

i have loved every animal i've had, most especially my belle. but don't get me wrong, she is by no means perfect. i think the experience of having different animals with different personalities is one of the joys of having pets.
also, it just takes the whole "don't buy, don't breed, adopt" situation to a whole new level.

Consider these before you clone.

i don't think those were strays, though! they looks perfectly content (and somewhat friendly) in their environs.

Remember that house was boarded up. so who knows if they were strays or not.

They may have been fine in their environ, then. Just wait untill the winter freezes their paws and whiskers!

Actually i just think that photo could make excellent anti-cloning agit prop. Not that i am specifically pro or con cloning.

If i could i would make an army of Olgas and take the white house. Her fur alone would cause such chaos.

did you mean fur or girth would causes chaos?

She is a multi-faceted warrior. Her fur acts like a biological agent blinding people and cameras and clogging lungs, exhaust systems, etc. Her girth just overwhelms them.

The kitties look friendly, but alone.
Who do they belong too?
Yes the kitties, they make a good argument for anti cloning. I think they all need homes.

I think it would be interested to create five clones of your cat and raise them in five different environments. Of course, then you'd be out $250,000. So, maybe not.

To clone or not to clone

The picture in the paper immediately caught my eye: a blonde with an adorable tabby kitten in her arms. The cat, Little Nicky, had the distinction of being the first commercially cloned feline. His owner, a Dallas resident named Julie, paid $50,000 US to get her late cat Nicky (Big Nicky) cloned. The procedure was made possible through Genetic Savings & Clone of California.

In the last few years, the cloning of animals – and potentially of humans – has sparked a heated debate throughout the world, particularly after the first cloned animal, the sheep Dolly, made her appearance in 1997. Many religious leaders, for example, have condemned the practice as contrary to the will of God. Other individuals, though, have hailed it as a sign of scientific progress.

I was a little shocked at the woman’s decision to pay $50,000 to clone her cat. In a democracy, however, we are all free to spend our money as we see fit, no matter how frivolous or outlandish the purchase. For instance, nothing is stopping me from spending $10,000 on lipstick (for the record, I don’t wear make-up at all).

While I don’t have any legal problems with cloning, I do have some ethical ones. First of all, if Julie wanted another cat so badly, why didn’t she adopt one from an animal shelter? Going through the drastic step of cloning an animal when there are so many in need of homes can’t help but strike me as somewhat immoral.

I also have psychological misgivings about cloning. It seems that people who clone a pet in the hope of making him or her “live forever” are denying the fact of death. All living creatures die at some point. Most of the time, we outlive our pets. It is natural to want to “hang on” to them, because the loss of an animal, or even the thought of losing one, is hard (I know; my cat Claudia died last year). But owning a pet involves accepting the realities of nature, including death.

I am sceptical as well of the notion that a cloned animal can truly replace the original one. Just because the two have the same genetic makeup does not mean they are “identical.” A well-known example of two individuals who shared the same genes but had very different personalities is that of Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese twins. Chang was essentially an alcoholic, whereas Eng did not drink at all. By the same token, I wonder whether if I cloned my cat Mama her clone would love catnip as much as she does. So by cloning your pet, will you really be getting the same animal as before?

When my cat Claudia died I had her cremated and put her ashes in a vase that now sits on my desk. I also have a photograph of her on the mantlepiece. But even these tangible reminders of her don’t compare with the memories of the fun and happy times I had with her. And although I adopted another cat afterwards, this cat did not “replace” Claudia. Nobody could – not an unrelated animal, not a brother or sister of hers, not a clone. Every animal, and person, is a unique individual. Perhaps the best way to make our pets “live forever” is to cherish them while they are alive and remember them after they die.

i totally agree. if i cloned my dead cat, don't think my dog now would like it very much. plus, my dad never really liked my cat. i loved her to death (literally) but i don't know if i could handle it if she came back. cloning is morally wrong and it deletes the intamacy of family life and takes away good relationships.