Shehas big eyes, perky pink ears and fuzzy fur that just begs to bestroked. But 8-week-old CC (short for copy cat) is no ordinarykitten. Introduced by Texas scientists in February, she is theworld's first cloned cat, the product of a lab experiment.

     Cloningis a high-tech way of breeding an animal that is an exact geneticcopy of a parent. Scientists have cloned mice, pigs, goats andsheep. The Texas company that paid for the research that produced CC－Genetic Savings &Clone－ hopes to clonepeople's pets!

     Tocreate CC, researchers at Texas A & M University took genes froma female cat named Rainbow and placed them into an egg cell from acat named Allie. Genes are the chemical instructions that determinewhat an individual creature is like, from its size to its eye color.The egg developed inside Allie. On December 22, she gave birth toCC, who is genetically the same as Rainbow.

      “Itwas exciting to witness,” says Lou Hawthorne, head of GeneticSaving & Clone. “She's such a cute cat.”

     Butnot everyone was charmed by CC. “We must question the socialpurpose here,” says Wayne Pacele of the U.S. Humane Society. “Morethan 5 million cats are destroyed each year when shelters can't findhomes for them. Why clone more cats?” “Just because you arecapable of doing it,” says Pacele, “doesn't mean you should.”

      awthorneis gambling that pet lovers will do almost anything to keep a belovedanimal around, even if it means spending thousands to recreate Fluffyor Fido, and even if the clone is not an exact copy. CC, forinstance, looks different from Rainbow because a cat's markings arenot shaped by genes alone. And who knows if she'll act like Rainbow?Personality－perhaps themost valued trait in a pet－cannotbe cloned.