What happens when it hurts so much to say goodbye?

David and Alicia Shirhart adored their yellow label Marley, but they didn’t know much until 2014 when they went hiking with him in the hills near his San Diego home.

“Alicia went down the aisle to catch a walk to help along the way,” David recalled. “As Marley suddenly walked away from me, Alicia began to nail her to the ground reaching for a pedestrian stick. I had no idea what was going on. Alicia kind of fell backwards.

“When I looked more closely, I saw that it was a sword,” he told author Tracy Smith.

Rattlers are common on these trails, which are very steep and miles away from any hospital. The Sir Hearts did not have cell phones with them. Snake bites can be a tragedy for Alicia, who is four months pregnant. Thankfully, 12-year-old Marley scared the snake – a few months later, Shirhearts’ first daughter, Maddie, was born. “Marley saved my family,” David said. “We were emotional at the time, and at that moment we realized how lucky we were that he did it.”

But by then, Marley had been diagnosed with cancer, and by the end of 2014 Thanksgiving weekend, it was clear that he was nearing the end.

“I remember the last time you told him, you know, you kept saying, ‘Thank you for being such a good dog.'” I cried and held his hand. “

“You know, yes, everything he did was out of love,” David said.

Their love for Marley was so strong that they could not go on. So, Shirhearts turned By pets, A company that has cloned hundreds of pets for a number of grateful owners in Austin, Texas (according to Milene Rodriguez, Viagen’s client service manager) Barbara Straysand: “We did, yes – her dog died. I think she knew what we were doing and I was able to get samples very quickly. In fact, more puppies were born in one go.”

Rodriguez works like this: Your vet takes a tissue sample from your pet and sends it to Viagen.

For $ 50,000, the company will bury the cells, create embryos, place them in a surrogate and hand over a clone of your loved one.

Animal welfare organizations say forcing dogs and cats to be hired for clones is inhumane.

Smith asked, “Did you know that human society says pet cloning should be made illegal?”

“I understand that,” Rodriguez replied. “They definitely deserve their opinion. We have a lot of clients, so it’s very upsetting.

The operative term in Shirhearts is delightful.

Marley’s clone, siggy, yellow ball. But to David and Alicia, he is no less than Marley Reincarnation.

“They rang the doorbell with the dog and I stood there with my mouth open for about five minutes because I could not believe how accurate he was,” Alicia said.

“He’s exactly Marley’s twins,” David said. “So, he’s in the same atmosphere. So really, he’s become the same dog.”

While pet cloning is still controversial, for some, it means you never have to say goodbye with the right amount of love, science and money.

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Story by John de Amelio. Editor: Remington Corp.