Remember Mini-Winnie the cloned Dachshund? Well, she’s grown up and has finally met her namesake and genetic twin – Winnie.
Mini-Winnie was born in March in South Korea after owner Rebecca Smith, 29, from Battersea, won a competition to have her dog cloned.
Mini-Winnie spent five months since her birth being reared in South Korea as well as some time in quarantine before being given to Rebecca and meeting Winnie for the first time this weekend.
When the pair met on Saturday they had a little sniff at each other, Miss Smith said.
‘It was pretty amazing,’ Miss Smith said. ‘We put them both on the carpet and they went up to each other and had a little sniff.
The pair are not identical due to the elderly Winnie’s signs of aging but the resemblance is clear.
MORE: Meet Mini Winnie, Britain’s first cloned dog (and at £60,000, its most expensive)
‘But then the little one tried to eat Winnie’s chew and she put her foot down to that.’
She added: ‘Their personalities do seem to be slightly different.
‘Winnie is very placid and laid-back. She likes to sleep and it’s quite hard to make her walk.’
Miss Smith added: ‘Mini-Winnie looks just like Winnie did when she was a puppy. Big Winnie has put on weight and looks grey now but they have the same markings.
‘They both have big ears and nipples which aren’t quite aligned. They even both have little bent tails.’
Miss Smith hit headlines earlier this year when she won a competition to have her dog Winnie cloned by Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in a procedure that normally costs around £60,000.
Miss Smith was given the original Winnie as an 18th birthday present and says the dog helped her through spells of bulimia and depression.
She said: ‘My boyfriend joked that we should get her cloned, but we never thought that would have been possible. Then we entered a competition in a newspaper and ended up winning.’
Winnie and Mini-Winnie will now be as bridesmaids at her wedding to next year.
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