# Be the first on your block to clone yer kitty!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-the-first-on-your-block-to-clone-yer-kitty/240202>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 15, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-the-first-on-your-block-to-clone-yer-kitty/240202 "2004-04-15T18:08:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-the-first-on-your-block-to-clone-yer-kitty/240202/1 "2004-04-15T18:08:16Z")

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A Sausalito company, Genetic Savings & Clone, says they’ll do it for you.

[Here’s](http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/15/MNGKF61C2A58.DTL) the story. Now, assuming you had $50,000 to toss around and felt no pressure to adopt a homeless kitty from the pound, would you do this? Would there be any guarantee that the new cat would live a long healthy life?

The only way I would do this (assuming I was rich as hell), would be if I had a spectacularly intelligent, easily trained pet and I wanted to duplicate these qualities in a clone. That is, I _hope_ those qualities would come through in a dupe. Otherwise, uh-uh. That’s a lot of cash for a kitty.

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**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-the-first-on-your-block-to-clone-yer-kitty/240202/2 "2004-04-15T22:52:46Z")

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First of all, many experimentally cloned animals have [health problems](http://www.discover.com/issues/may-04/rd/fuzzy-duplicates/). I wouldn’t want to bring a companion animal into the world if there was a risk it would just suffer and die.

Even of the process was perfect, I wouldn’t do it. I love my cat. Cloning isn’t going to just magically give me 10 more years with my cat. This is going to be a new cat; a different cat. I highly doubt the personality would be similar–and event if it was, my cat’s personality sucks, actually. Much of the time, she’s bitey, whiney, hissy, antisocial, and doesn’t get along well with other cats or houseguests.

But, ya know, I lover her anyway.

To try to replace her with a copy devalues her individuality, and would be a) a disappointment for me, almost certainly and b) a disservice to her memory.

Anyway, the clone-kitty wouldn’t even really _look_ like my cat! I recall correctly, spots develop in animals while they’re in the womb, and specific locations of the spots are not genetically controlled. Since my cat is white with black spots, the clone won’t have the particular arrangement of spots that makes my cat unique.

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**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-the-first-on-your-block-to-clone-yer-kitty/240202/3 "2004-04-15T22:58:14Z")

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ER, that’ would be _if_ I recall correctly and, apparently, I do:

[Cite:](http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/Biol540/17cloning2k3.html)

> [@](#):
>
> The kitten is a calico-and-white shorthair that looks similar to, but not exactly like, her genetic mother. The scientists said her coat coloring was unique because not only genetics contribute to an animal’s markings, but also conditions in the womb.