I clipped off a little bit of fur from my departed babies before sending them for cremation. I’m ready.
I still have Charlie’s brush and never got rid of the fur in it bc it’s sad…
I’m ready too. I bet Charlie and Ollie would get along well.
Fur sample isn’t officially accepted, but you guys could try calling them and see if they can work with that in some way.
I’m planning on getting a genetic preservation done next time I go to the vet.
Too freaky for me. The reality is that the way an animal is depends on how they were treated from birth. Their mother, their siblings, the climate they are in, and the situation they were in all matter.
You might end up with an animal that looks exactly like your lost pet but it’s not going to be the same pet. So in that case, why bother and fool around with mother nature???
Well I look at it a bit differently.
Yes, there are 2 components to how an animal is, there’s nature (DNA), and nurture (how it’s brought up). With a genetic clone you’re guaranteeing that the nature component is identical. I plan on raising my clone exactly the same way as the original, including any bad decisions made with the original one.
Well, I don’t exactly know how to duplicate my Charlie’s situation. He and his siblings were the product of strays. They were born in a window well outside in November in NYC. The nice homeowner put them in a plastic garbage bag and dumped them in a garbage can when they were a few weeks old. 3 of the 6 were dead by the time they were found.
One of them was kept by the rescuer and the other 2 (Charlie and Kara) went to a rescue group and were put into a cage at Petco for 5 months. Every week my kids and I would visit them as we shopped for our other pet supplies. It was getting sad. Nobody wanted them because they were being adopted out as a bonded pair. Charlie was sickly. His eye was so messed up that the constant tearing caused fur loss. He looked terrible.
Finally, we just broke down and took them. We REALLY regret not doing it months earlier when they were young and a lot more playful. I’m sure you read Charlie’s story from back in Jan when he passed away from lymphoma on this forum. We still have Kara. She just turned 12.
She never really liked her brother and she hates Ollie so he lives up with my MIL and we find ways to let her sleep in various locked rooms so he can hang with us 4 hours a day or so. He’s with me all night in my basement (where I work) as well.
Animals are a lot of work someone told me.
One of my dogs broke one of his legs when he was a few months old and then he broke another one several months later. Was there a weakness in his bones? I wouldn’t want his clone to have the same weakness.
One of my cats developed a benign tumor. Would the tumor also develop in the clone? Nothing is certain.
When I clipped the fur, it was to help me remember the color and texture of the fur. His color is just as good a memory as the fur.
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@ASV_Vites Yes, sometimes an animal just tugs at your heart strings and you can’t turn away.
When I was looking for a companion dog for my Toy Fox Terrier, I wanted a similar type dog for him. But another dog had been brought in to the animal shelter. She was thin and starving and had been wandering the streets. She recently had puppies because it was obvious she had been nursing. She had kennel cough and worms. No one was interested in her and I almost passed her up. But then she looked me straight in the eye and wagged her tail. That did it. Here are before and after photos.
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I love reading / seeing stories like this.
Thank you for being one of the great people of the world that open their homes to the most needy of the fur babies.
And thank you for being one of these people too, for adopting Charlie and Kara when so many others walked on by. You gave them a safe and happy home.
Cinnamon turned out to be a very friendly dog who loved people. She was about one year old when I adopted her and she lived to be 15 years when she died of natural causes.
We keep collars, too. 
I have to adjust Ollie’s at least once a week. This thing is a monster in the making. Haha
I said the same thing once. But they won’t be the same, it’s all based upon upgringing, and all of my pups so far have been rescues. The first 1-2 years of their lives who knows what happened. There are so many unloved fur friends out there, I am very happy to adopt.
I did as well.
Fur and clippings from their nails.
When I investigated it many years ago it was like $50K. …
Most of the 18 were born into my hands. Only 4 were brought from other people within the breed that I knew for years.
I have children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great, even some great great greats…All dispositions are completely different, even with 2 from the same parents. Just like people! 
It’s still 50K. I’m assuming that the cost hasn’t gone up from inflation due to the costs of the procedure going down from being refined.
Cats were 25K a few years ago, those were hiked to 50K recently to be the same as dogs.
I would not expect the cost to decrease anytime soon (if anything it’ll go up). Each clone involves a lot of fairly expensive lab / veterinary work. They need to extract eggs from a donor, transfer the DNA over, and then perform IVF on the surrogate.
Human IVF can run 20 - 30K, and that’s a much more common and in demand procedure, and that cost doesn’t guarantee anything (the 50K price tag guarantees 1 healthy clone). And going to a vet costs more than going to a doctor for yourself.
That’s been the number for years. Sadly.
“And going to a vet costs more than going to a doctor for yourself.”
Isn’t that the truth. One of my sweethearts contracted lepto from a visiting opossum. $10K and she didn’t make it.
I wanted to be a vet but . Yeah. 
Sorry for your loss, regardless of when it was.
Thanks Steve.
We lost her in September. Our new pups are her great grandbabies <3
I’m a little slow today after taking a couple days off. I thought at first that you must be REALLY old, and then the light bulb clicked on. 
I DO have a five generation picture from when my oldest son was born however, so there’s that…