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Iconic singer Barbara Streisand was in the news recently for her revelation that she had her former beloved dog, Samantha, cloned before its death. She spent good money for the procedure so that she could keep a part of her previous dog alive.

An Arizona may have done it ahead of the famous celebrity. Rich Hazelwood, who’s been a resident of Valley in Phoenix all his life and owner of the Celebrity Theater also had a loving and close relationship with his dog Jackie, a terrier and English bulldog mix, for close to 17 years.

A few years ago, however, Jackie got glaucoma and went blind. Hazelwood knew then that Jackie does not have much time left to be with him, so he decided to have her cloned.

Only after making such a decision, Jenny and Julie, Jackie’s clones, were born. Hazelwood believes he could probably be the first Arizona man to clone his dog.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Would you clone your aging dog?<br><br>An Arizona man had his 17-year-old dog successfully cloned TWICE! >>> <a href="https://t.co/EaOjRCVZ5W">https://t.co/EaOjRCVZ5W</a> <a href="https://t.co/3ND4CnZXue">pic.twitter.com/3ND4CnZXue</a></p>— NBC2 (@NBC2) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBC2/status/971829958527143937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The cloning did not come cheap, however. Hazelwood spent a whopping $50,000 to a Texas-based company to do the job. Expensive as the procedure was, Hazelwood says it’s all worth it for the happiness he gets from his new dogs whom he says share so much similarities with his dearly-departed Jackie. He shares: “They lay out in the sun and stretch out just like she does.”

Julie, the more active dog stays more by his side, while Jenny opts to stick with his wife.

Hazelwood notes that the only difference the pair has with Jackie is the fact they don’t have the same stand-up ears as his original pet.

Hazelwood sees himself having the same lasting tight bond with Julie and Jenny, in the same way he enjoyed the company and devotion of Jackie. He says: “I am going to have something very close to the joy I had with Jackie. That’s why I did it.”’

Source:

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Man-Pays-50K-to-Clone-Dog_Dallas-Fort-Worth-476294173.html