Last night I watched “I cloned my pet” on TLC. Although this is a hug breakthrough in technology, I am not sure if I agree with cloning deceased pets/animals. Three years ago I lost my long haired chihuahua to heart failure. He was almost two years old, his name was Buddy and he had two sisters. One of his sisters was stillborn, and the other past away the following day. I always considered him to be the lucky one, his mother didn’t want anything to do with him, and had no maternal instincts. I hand raised him with the help of my mother. I slept on a couch in our living room beside him while he slept in a box with a towel and a heating pad for three months. I mixed him puppy formula and fed him through a syringe until he was able to drink from a baby bottle. I burped him and made him use the bathroom with wet-ones the same way his biological mother would have. He went everywhere with me and even used a pacifier. He was my everything. When he got older and could be with the other dogs, they always treated him like an outcast like there was something wrong with him. One day I noticed he was acting out of the ordinary. He wasn’t breathing or eating the way he should, so I took him to the vet. They did an x-ray of his heart/lungs. I was told that his heart was five times the size it should be and he had fluid in his lungs. He was put on medication for fluid in his lungs, an enlarged heart muscle, and medication to make his heart work more effectively. When I took him home I sat with him and cried for hours. I felt like he had been given a death sentence, and there was nothing that could really be done for him. Over the next few days he got worse, he couldn’t sleep due to holding his head up to keep from drowning. Then I noticed his ears and gums beginning to turn blue. I contacted the vet at 9:00 pm to humanely put him to sleep, I was so tired of watching him suffer, it was breaking my heart, and I didn’t want him to hurt anymore. At 9:10 pm he urinated on the carpet in the living room and wanted to see his dad. They stared at each other and licked each others faces, as if they were saying goodbye. I was sitting in the kitchen on the floor, and he walked over to me and sat in my lap and looked up at me, and I kissed him on his forehead, and he laid his head on my knee. As I held him he began to cry due to the fluid building in his lungs, causing him to not be able to breathe. Moments passed and he passed away. I wrapped him in a baby blanket, and my dad took him from me and buried him. I would have wanted to cremate him but could not afford to do so. He was like my son, and he was my world. I cried for weeks after his death, and even now, years later writing this, it makes me cry. I miss him everyday, and it is hard to look at photos and videos of him, but I know he is in a better place, and is not suffering anymore. I know he is always with me. I do not agree with cloning, it messes up the natural order of life, and I believe it is wrong to play God. I do wish I had more time with Buddy, and I wish him with me everyday. But I cherish and keep the memories of his bark, the way he looked at me, the spark in his eyes, his smell, and every loving moment he was in my life. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I am grateful to have had him in my life. I still have his daddy and treat him like my son, and I cherish every moment with him.