Cc, or Copycat, was the first cloned cat to be produced. Born in 2002, she was a change of direction. Up until this point, most of the research into cloning had been focused on farm and research animals – but although cats have an important role as research animals they are thought of first and foremost as pets.

Much of the funding for cat cloning in the US comes from companies who are hoping to be able to clone people’s dying or dead pets for them. It has already been shown that a successful clone can be produced from a dead animal. Cells from beef from a slaughter house were used to create a live cloned calf. But to make Cc, 188 attempts were made producing 87 cloned embryos, only one of which resulted in a kitten.

Cloning your pet won’t be easy or cheap. But should people be cloning their dead pets, or should they be learning to grieve, appreciate the animal they had and give a home to one of the thousands of unwanted cats already in existence?

Even if a favourite pet is cloned, it may look nothing like the original. This is because the coat colour of many cats – like the much loved calico in the picture – is the result of random gene switching in the skin cells. The markings would never be the same again, even if the DNA was.