CC (cat)

CC, for "CopyCat" or "Carbon Copy" (born December 22, 2001), is a brown tabby and white domestic shorthair and the first cloned pet. CC's surrogate mother was a tabby, but her genetic donor, Rainbow, was a calico domestic shorthair. The difference in hair coloration between CC and Rainbow is due to epigenetic re-programming, which normally occurs in a fertilised embryo before implantation.

In September 2006, CC gave birth to four kittens. The litter included two males named Tim and Zip and one female named Tess who were fathered naturally. The remaining kitten, a female, was stillborn. This incident was the first time a cloned pet gave birth. CC appears to be free of the cloning-related health problems that have arisen in some other animal clones. "CC has always been a perfectly normal cat and her kittens are just that way, too," says Kraemer. "We’ve been monitoring their health and all of them are fine, just like CC has been for the past five years."