I was standing at JFK Airport waiting to meet a dog who had the exact same DNA as the dog I had lost. ABC News was there filming. I had imagined this moment for months, and suddenly I felt an enormous amount of pressure.
How are you supposed to react when you’re about to hold the clone of your soul dog for the first time? Then the handlers put him in my arms, and he peed on me. I actually thought it was hilarious.
I was incredibly nervous, and apparently, so was he. Suddenly this huge, emotional moment became less tense. I was holding a nervous little puppy.
Genetically, Smoochie is a clone of my dog Ciuppi, who died in March 2025. But I learned very quickly that sharing the same DNA does not mean sharing the same soul. Ciuppi came into my life as a puppy in 2016.
He was there through relationships, breakups, moves and different versions of myself. I could be alone in an apartment without ever really feeling alone because there was always Ciuppi. I called him my soul dog because that’s what he felt like.
When Ciuppi developed lymphoma, a common cancer in dogs, I became consumed with trying to save him. I traveled with him from our home in Florida to Washington State for treatment and ultimately spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to keep him alive. Cloning entered the picture during that fight.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
