I've been a dog owner all my life, so I have some firsthand experience with loving and losing a four footed friend. I can understand the lure of identical replacement: the same sensitive chocolate eyes, the same wiggling wagging excitement at your arrival, the same favorite treats and games. And certainly, in our greatest moments of loss and grief, who wouldn't want a miracle if they could afford one. Only problem is, this miracle costs more than money.

As dearly as I've loved one dog, I've loved the others as well. Different dogs bring different temperaments, surprises, challenges and joys. One can't live without her tennis ball, the other is all about laying at your feet, and still another is a ball of energy that lives for long walks with 'mom and dad'. If I'd spent my life recreating one, I'd never have met the many more. And all those others, what would have happened to them? Would they have found homes anyway? Probably, but what if... they hadn't?

And what about nature vs. nurture? How much of our pet's sweetness or sass comes from the way we raise and train them? If you adopt an otherwise healthy pup and apply the same rules every time, aren't you likely to end up with similarly adorable dogs? Give or take some individual personality foibles, of course, and it's those foibles that make each of our canine companions so precious to us. What would I have lost from those experiences if I'd paid the high price of a miracle?

When someone spends outrageous sums to clone a pet I have to think, besides the obvious that maybe my kids should study cloning, that their grief got in the way of their good sense. But when I consider how much happiness any well chosen pet would likely have brought them, and in addition, how much happiness a substantial contribution to any animal shelter would bring to so many others, I'm left to wonder if maybe we should add the category "More Money than Heart".