Barbra Streisand explains pooch cloning story

Barbra Streisand has explained that she cloned her pet pooch Samantha after being left "devastated" by her passing.

The 75-year-old singer and actress revealed last week that she had taken cells from her late Coton du Tulear - who passed away in 2017 at the age of 14 - in order to create clones in the form of her two new pups Miss Scarlett and Miss Violet.

And now, in an essay for the New York Times, the 'Evergreen' hitmaker has opened up further on her decision to clone her beloved pooch, explaining that she was left so heartbroken by Samantha's death that she couldn't bear moving on with a completely different hound.

She wrote: "I was so devastated by the loss of my dear Samantha, after 14 years together, that I just wanted to keep her with me in some way. It was easier to let Sammie go if I knew I could keep some part of her alive, something that came from her DNA. A friend had cloned his beloved dog, and I was very impressed with that dog. So Sammie's doctor took some cells from inside her cheek and the skin on her tummy just before she died. And we sent those cells to ViaGen Pets in Texas. We weren't even sure if the cells would take.

"And then I got a call from the lab. Not only did the cloning process take, but it produced four puppies! Unfortunately the runt of the litter died before the puppies were old enough to be delivered to me. And then the 13-year-old daughter of my A&R man bonded with one of the clones, so I gave them that puppy."

But Barbra admits cloning her pooch hasn't completely rid her of the sadness she felt when Samantha passed away, as she cannot replace the "soul" of her late pup.

She added: "You can clone the look of a dog, but you can't clone the soul. Still, every time I look at their faces, I think of my Samantha ... and smile."

Barbra revealed the news in an interview for Variety last week when she suggested that the caption on a photo of her with her pooches should read: "Send in the clones."

She added: "They have different personalities. I'm waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her [Samantha's] brown eyes and seriousness."

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