Woman Spends $25K to Clone Her Cat After Pet's Untimely Death, Calls it 'One of the Best Decisions' (Exclusive) Kelli BenderDecember 3, 2025 at 10:15 PM 0 Ragnarok Cattery; ViaGen Pets Chai as a kitten (left) and Belle as a kitten Tom Brady recently made headlines when it was revealed that his dog Junie is a clone of the retired quarterback's late pup, Lua — and many know Barbra Streisand cloned her beloved canine, Samantha. But Kelly Anderson wants animal lovers to know pet cloning isn't just for the rich and famous.
- - Woman Spends $25K to Clone Her Cat After Pet's Untimely Death, Calls it 'One of the Best Decisions' (Exclusive)
Kelli BenderDecember 3, 2025 at 10:15 PM
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Ragnarok Cattery; ViaGen Pets
Chai as a kitten (left) and Belle as a kitten
Tom Brady recently made headlines when it was revealed that his dog Junie is a clone of the retired quarterback's late pup, Lua — and many know Barbra Streisand cloned her beloved canine, Samantha. But Kelly Anderson wants animal lovers to know pet cloning isn't just for the rich and famous.
The Austin-based social media manager, 36, cloned her cat Chai in 2017 to make her current kitty, Belle. Anderson is open about her experience and what it's like to live with a cloned cat on her Clone Kitty website and social media accounts.
"I think people see stuff in the news about Tom Brady or Paris Hilton cloning their pets and don't realize that the average person is also out there doing this. I'm not wealthy," Anderson tells PEOPLE, adding that she took out a loan to cover the $25,000 cost of cloning Chai.
The expense was worth it to Anderson, who still calls cloning her late pet "one of the best decisions I've ever made."
The pet owner says she knew from the start that Chai's clone would be more like an identical twin than an exact copy. She wasn't expecting Belle to have the same personality as her predecessor. For Anderson, the cloning process was about carrying on Chai's legacy, because the feline had a profound impact on her.
Kelly Anderson; Fetching Fido Fotography - Jane Fidanza
Cats Chai (left) and Belle
"Chai came into my life when I was in my later years in college. And it was a time in my life where I was struggling with mental health issues and depression," Anderson shares. "She just immediately synced up with me and understood my emotions in ways that no other animal really ever had. And I've had animals my entire life."
She adds that Chai, a ragdoll cat, wasn't overly cuddly, but could intuit when Anderson needed affection and comfort. The pair bonded deeply early when Chai got sick as a kitten and required five months of treatment before she was healthy again.
Kelly Anderson
Chai the cat
Unfortunately, Chai's life was cut short after she ingested a piece of plastic from a food wrapper while under a pet sitter's care. Vets discovered the obstruction a week after Chai ingested the plastic. And while the cat survived the operation to remove the plastic wrapper, she had an adverse reaction to the anesthesia and died after the surgery.
"I went to the vet, had my carrier, was in the private vet room thinking I was picking her up, and the vet walked in about 10 minutes later and told me that when I had walked in, they had gone to get her out of her carrier and found her unresponsive. She basically had a bad reaction to anesthesia," Anderson says of the heartbreaking circumstances of Chai's death.
By chance, Anderson had been talking about pet cloning with her roommate after they had learned that Viagen, a pet cloning company, was located nearby.
Kelly Anderson
Chai the cat
"It was fresh on my mind the night after Chai passed, and I couldn't sleep and stayed up all night researching cloning and ultimately decided that that was what I wanted to do with Chai's legacy," Anderson recalls. "As soon as I made up my mind about it, I knew that that's what I wanted to do."
Anderson contacted Viagen shortly after Chai's death in October 2017 and began the cloning process. The company warned the pet owner she would not be getting an "exact copy of the pet back."
That was no problem for Anderson. "For me, this was never about bringing my cat back from the grave. It was just about carrying on a piece of her," she says.
Anderson thought the cloning process would take several months, but because of several factors, including a degraded tissue sample, it took four years. In Oct. 2021, Anderson finally met Chai's clone, Belle.
Kelly Anderson
Belle on a leash
"It was so surreal. I wasn't sitting there thinking about Chai in that moment. I was thinking about this small, tiny, baby kitten that I'd been waiting so long to meet, and it's finally here," Anderson says of the day she met Belle.
"I think I really got to enjoy that moment of receiving Belle and getting to meet Belle," she adds, noting that Belle "fell asleep on my lap instantly."
The novelty of having a cloned cat has yet to wear off for Anderson.
"I think it's so wild and amazing that we can do this. It's been really fascinating watching Belle grow up and seeing the similarities and the differences," she says.
Speaking of similarities, Belle and Chai certainly look a lot alike, and, according to Anderson, there are ways they act alike, too.
Anastasia's Photography - Stacy (Anastasia) Ludwig
Kelly Anderson with Belle
Like Chai, Belle senses some of Anderson's emotions, especially anxiety, and often cuddles with Anderson when the cat owner feels stressed.
Belle is experiencing a different life from Chai. Chai's illness in kittenhood kept Anderson from pursuing her adventure cat dreams with the pet. Anderson started bringing Belle to parks, stores, and breweries as a kitten, so the feline grew up comfortable in public spaces.
Today, Belle often accompanies Anderson on excursions, which they document on social media. Belle has over 88,000 followers on Instagram, many of whom started following the account when Chai was alive.
Traverse Productions - Diego Henriquez
Belle the cat
"They were there for the entire journey of Chai's passing, and everyone was there for my decision to start cloning," Anderson says of the @CloneKitty social media following. "So I felt like I needed to keep everyone up to date on what was going on."
After she started sharing more details online about Belle and how the cat came to be, Anderson "realized that I had an opportunity to have a platform no one was really talking about online because it's a controversial topic."
"I think the most common question I get is, 'Do they have the same personality or not?' Everyone wants to know that first off the bat," Anderson says of the conversations she has about cloning online. "And then on the more hostile side, people want to know why I didn't adopt, why I didn't donate $25,000 to charity instead."
"A lot of people have questions about the ethics of it as well, which I think is completely fair. But I do have complete faith in ViaGen Pets and their process."
Anderson says she doesn't plan to clone another pet anytime soon — she has two other cats and two dogs, including a retired service dog named Ghost.
Kelly Anderson
Belle the cat visiting a store
Ghost came into Anderson's life while Chai was still alive. And the dog's owner says that, among the current cats, Ghost seems to have the closest bond with Chai's clone, Belle.
"I often see them sleeping next to each other and Ghost engaging with Belle more than the other cats. And I don't know if it's just because her personality is more bold and outgoing than my other cats, or if he just knows," Anderson says.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.For those curious about pet cloning, Anderson has two pieces of advice. First, don't pursue the costly process if you "think you're going to get your pet back."
"This is not resurrection, this is not reincarnation. You're not going to get your cat or your dog back from the dead. If you're doing this because you miss your pet, then think about the intent and the reason behind that before you decide to clone, because it's going to end up in disappointment for you," she explains. "It's not fair to the animal if you're cloning this pet with the idea of casting this wide shadow over them of the original."
Fetching Fido Fotography - Jane Fidanza
Belle the cat
Anderson's second suggestion is that cloning-curious pet owners should get a tissue sample from their living pet — a procedure that can be done during a dental cleaning — and have it preserved so it's ready for cloning."I think it's really important to know that you can collect tissue samples before your pet passes. And that's actually the recommended process for genetic preservation. I think part of the reason it took four years for me was that they had frozen Chai's remains overnight, and that started to damage her cell quality," she says.
Anderson admits she has Ghost's tissue preserved with Viagen, "just in case I ever win the lottery. I definitely don't have the money to clone again offhand."
"At the end of the day, we all love our pets, and we have a really strong connection with special animals in our lives. I think that it's really cool that science is allowing us to clone pets. And for some people, it's the right direction and can really be life-changing."
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: December 03, 2025 at 09:45AM on Source: PRIME TIME
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