Family Dog Cloned After Saving Owners Lives

Nothing in life beats having a loyal and loving dog, especially a Labrador Retriever.Get out the kleenex because you're going to need it after this story.

Based on a story from WILX, a California family wasn't ready to say goodbye after the death of their dog of 12 years, who had once saved them from a rattlesnake, so they had him cloned.

Ziggy is like a lot of other Labrador retrievers, exuberant and very curious, but he's a clone of Marley, the first dog of his owners, David and Alicia Tschirhart.

This family had Marley for 12 years, and when he died, they weren't ready to say goodbye. The family turned to Viagen, a company that offers cloning services for pets. It uses technology famously used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1997.

The costs for Viagen's services are listed online with dogs at $50,000 and cats at $35,000. A spokesperson says they currently have a one year waiting list.

For this family, it was a small price to pay to give new life to Marley, who the family says saved their lives in 2014.

Their dog saved their lives by jumping in to prevent a rattle snake from attacking the Tschirhart's. Please click on the above link for the rest of the story.