Cloning Lancelot

This week in between the impeachment of the Illinois governor, President Obama's doings, and the birth of octuplets, there was a news story about a couple who spent $155,000 to clone their beloved dog Lancelot. Apparently Lancelot was a very special dog to this couple, who own nine other dogs, four birds, several cats and sheep. So special that they decided to freeze the dog's DNA when he died in 2008 of cancer, just in case they wanted to clone him.
Now, I am a dog lover, and to this day still have a hard time talking about when we put our family dog, Frebbles, down when I was in high school. Frebbles, an English Springer Spaniel, was a very special dog to our family and losing her was one of the hardest things that we could have gone through. We often talk about how there would never be another Frebbles, and honestly, I don't think I would ever want to try to replace her by cloning her. Frebbles was a very unique dog and trying to create another of her would take away from how special she was. Instead of creating another Frebbles, I bought two English Springer Spaniels with Adam, and my parents bought an English Springer Spaniel of their own. Now our three dogs are not Frebbles by any means, but we love them just the same.
I just think about poor Lancelot's life. For the next decade or more Lancelot is going to be trying to fill the paws of the previous Lancelot, having to live up to the expectations of his owner.
The couple has said that they will love the dog regardless of whether he is exactly like their first Lancelot or not. Well, if they have that attitude, why didn't they just go to a local lab breeder and buy a yellow lab. They would have taken a gamble at whether the dog would have been like Lancelot, but at least they would have saved themselves $154,500 in the process.