The Missyplicity Project

John Sperling is interested in life-a long life, whether it's for his cat, for himself or for others. In fact, he'd like to be able to live forever. The apostle Paul knew that living forever was possible-but had no interest in doing it in his mortal body.

In early 2002, there was a small news item that slipped past most people without causing much commentary or concern. But you can be sure that all of the dogs of the world immediately sat up and began to whine.

The headline: “Scientists Clone ‘Carbon Copy’ Cat.”

Scientists in Texas cloned a female calico kitten named “Cc:” — short for “Copycat” — an animal believed to be the first pet ever successfully cloned. She came out of the “Missyplicity Project,” a multimillion-dollar scientific enterprise that had been attempting to clone a dog named Missy for her wealthy owner.

The cloning of canines wasn’t working at the time, so Copycat jumped out to an early lead. The score became Cats — 1, Dogs — 0. The researchers on the Missyplicity Project hoped that the cloning of pets would become a popular procedure.

As for the dogs of the world ... well, they simply wanted to catch the cats and continue to wonder...