About Chai
Belle is a cloned kitten. A legitimate, genetically identical clone. That’s why this story begins in 2011 not with Belle herself, but with Chai, a Ragdoll cat and Belle’s cell donor. Chai’s beginning started rough. Due to poor conditions from a substandard breeder she overcame non-genetic health issues, including Giardia, calicivirus, ear infections, and more, totaling five conditions and over $800 in vet bills.
BIRTH
Born August 2, 2011, near Los Angeles, CA
HOME
Went home on October 28, 2011
DEATH
Died March 16, 2017
Chai was unlike many Ragdolls in that she was skittish of most people and selective with affection. But that didn’t stop her from forming an incredibly strong bond with me.
She was quarantined for nearly three months and administered medications in about every place a medication can go. Because of lack of socialization during a major developmental period and the trauma of isolation and treatments, Chai was unlike many Ragdolls in that she was skittish of most people and selective with affection. But that didn’t stop her from forming an incredibly strong bond with me. She was and remains the closest thing I’ve ever considered a soul mate.
After her initial health problems were managed, Chai lived a healthy life for 5 years. But, under the watch of a petsitter, she ingested a deli meat wrapper that caused an impaction and led to her needing emergency surgery to remove the foreign object. She survived the surgery.
The plan was simple enough after things had gone well with surgery. Pick her up, take her to an overnight facility for one more night of monitoring, and pick her up the next day to go home. I was on the way to see the live action version of Beauty and the Beast when I left to transfer her and made the stop at our vet clinic. I’m a major Disney nerd so I was all dolled up in French attire, expecting to make a quick drive with Chai and then head to the theater. But it was not meant to be. Before Chai could be brought out, they found her unresponsive in her kennel. The guess was a reaction to the anesthesia.
I don’t think I’ve ever sobbed so gutturally in my life, especially not in front of an entire back office of veterinary staff. This was not only too soon and completely unexpected, but a part of my heart was literally torn away that day. Too overcome with emotion to process the situation in its entirety, I drove home with an empty carrier and a broken heart.
As luck would have it, the only facility in the United States that clones cats for the general population, ViaGen Pets, was headquartered less than an hour away from where I lived at the time. Perhaps it was meant to be?
Chai 2.0
In trying to digest the reality of losing Chai, I suddenly recalled a serendipitous conversation I’d had with a friend just three weeks before this nightmare began…a conversation about pet cloning. Lost in grief and seeking an anchor, unable to sleep that night, I began obsessively researching cloning to better understand if this might, perhaps, offer a means of honoring the most important living being I’d ever known—a way to preserve the final petals from her rose, not bring her back to life.
As luck would have it, the only facility in the United States that clones cats for the general population, ViaGen Pets, was headquartered less than an hour away from where I lived at the time. Perhaps it was meant to be?
We all cope in different ways, and I just happened to choose a more unique way to do so in cloning. With renewed hope for the future—a future without Chai, but one that could, perhaps carry forward her memory—the vet collected skin cells from Chai’s body via a biopsy the next morning and I had it couriered to the cloning lab. Already, the odds were against the plan as Chai’s body had been frozen overnight and time was not on our side. Still, we all crossed our fingers. The lab was able to harvest 6 million cells (a slim number compared to the average 10 million in cases where cells come from a live donor).
And that was the beginning of Belle’s story…the cloning process began in October 2017, just seven months after Chai’s death.
On August 20, 2021—nearly ten years to the day from Chai’s birth and an apropos nod to her 2.0 status—Belle was born via a surrogate cat in a ViaGen lab.
About Belle
The process was not without emotional turmoil. Attempt after attempt, my heart broke a little more. No matter the level of scientific expertise, not all outcomes are controllable, so it took some time before those 6 million cells transformed into a viable embryo. Fast forward to 2021 and the next chapter of this fairytale began.
On August 20, 2021—nearly ten years to the day from Chai’s birth and an apropos nod to her 2.0 status—Belle was born via a surrogate cat in a ViaGen lab. Of course I named her Belle. What better name to bestow on the clone of my Ice Queen (a loving moniker acknowledging Chai’s standoffish nature) turned fair princess, whose story is inextricably linked to Beauty and the Beast.
While Belle’s inception didn’t follow a traditional path, her kittenhood was a dream and wasn’t plague with illness the way her predecessor’s had been. Belle received the best of care from her surrogate cat mom, her kitten siblings (cloned embryos from another cat that, along with Belle, were carried and birthed by the surrogate), and an entire cadre of ViaGen staff vested in seeing our princess never wanted for anything.
By October 2021, I flew from Austin to Rochester, New York, where Belle came to be and had spent her first eight weeks of life. The first thing she did was lay on my lap calmly.
BIRTH
Born August 20, 2021, in Rochester, NY
HOME
Went home on October 21, 2021
CLONING
Cloning process began October 2017
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