Ariella Lorio waited at New York’s JFK Airport to be handed something impossible: a dog with the exact DNA of her late pet.
Her little dog Ciuppi had died in March 2025, and Lorio paid 50.000 dollars to a laboratory in Hong Kong to clone him. Nine months later, she held Smoochie in her hands, genetically identical and raised from scratch to be a second chance.
But as soon as she picked him up, the puppy peed on her amid nervous laughter, and that was when she began to notice the differences. Ciuppi was calm and wary of men; Smoochie has boundless energy, hates water, and adores any stranger who comes near him. Lorio had paid 50.000 dollars believing that the same DNA would somehow allow her to get Ciuppi back. But when she met Smoochie, she understood that she had cloned his genes, not her little dog.
And although at first she was surprised to discover that he did not behave like Ciuppi, she ended up accepting a much more difficult idea: she had not managed to bring him back, but had met a completely new dog. DNA can be copied. Personality, memories, and the bond that made Ciuppi unique cannot.