Streisand’s cloned pups meet the original
SHE revealed last week that although her beloved dog died last year, she had managed to have the pet cloned.
Now Barbra Streisand has posted a picture of the resulting pups visiting the grave of their late forebear, Samantha.
Named Miss Scarlett and Miss Violet, the little pair are seen sitting in a red buggy and looking at the flower-laden plot.
The headstone is inscribed ‘Samantha (Sammie)’ and carries an image of the dog, her dates and the words: ‘Our little angel... Always in our hearts.’ Samantha was a coton de tulear, a small breed noted for its cotton-like white coat.
She died last May at the age of 14, and Miss Scarlett and Miss Violet are her genetic replicas.
They were created from cells extracted from her mouth and stomach – a cloning process which is likely to have cost Miss Streisand at least £70,000.
Sharing the photo of her dogs visiting the burial site on her blog, the 75-year-old singer and actress said she was ‘disappointed’ that an American newspaper which reproduced the image had cropped it.
‘It destroyed the intent and specialness of the full picture’, she wrote. ‘The point is, my little girls were looking at their mother pictured on her tombstone! It’s an amazing photo.’
While Miss Streisand waited for the puppies to arrive, she also bought a third coton de tulear distantly related to Samantha, which she adopted and named Miss Fanny after her character Fanny Brice in the 1968 film Funny Girl. The entertainer, who has been married for 20 years to second husband James Brolin, spoke about her three pets in an interview with US showbusiness magazine Variety last week.
She said that although the puppies looked identical to Samantha, they had different personalities. ‘I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her brown eyes and her seriousness,’ Miss Streisand said.
In November she spoke of her grief at Samantha’s death. ‘She was always with me,’ she said. ‘It was like losing a child. It was kind of awful.’