CC (cat)

CC for "Carbon Copy" or "Copy Cat" (born December 22, 2001), is a brown tabby and white domestic shorthair and the first cloned pet. CC's surrogate mother was a tabby, but her genetic donor, Rainbow, was a calico domestic shorthair. The difference in hair coloration between CC and Rainbow is due to X-inactivation. The embryo that became CC was the only one of 87 embryos produced in this research project that developed into a full-term pregnancy after being transferred to surrogate mothers.

The research project that produced CC was known as "Operation CopyCat," and was part of a larger project (called Missyplicity) to clone a dog named Missy. Entrepreneur John Sperling funded the research through his company Genetic Savings & Clone, which provided commercial gene banking and cloning services to pet owners and which closed in 2006.

CC was born at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University, under the direction of Dr. Mark Westhusin, in collaboration with Dr. Taeyoung Shin. Her existence was announced publicly in February 14, 2002, Valentine's Day, in conjunction with the publication of a scientific paper about the accomplishment.

CC now lives in the household of Dr. Duane Kraemer, one of the scientists who worked on the project.

In September 2006, CC gave birth to three kittens who were fathered naturally. This is the first time a cloned pet has given birth. CC appears to be free of health problems that seem to have arisen in other animal clones due to the cloning process. "CC has always been a perfectly normal cat and her kittens are just that way, too," says Kraemer. "We’ve been monitoring their health and all of them are fine, just like CC has been for the past five years."