In Beijing, a new era is beginning. Garlic, a kitten born on July 21, is the first cloned kitten in China.

Huang Yu, a businessman in his early twenties, was crushed when his cat Garlic died of a urinary tract infection in January. He buried his cat in a local park, before having the idea of cloning. With this thought, Mr. Huang dug up his cat and put him in his refrigerator.

“In my heart,” said Huang to the New York Times, “Garlic is irreplaceable. Garlic didn’t leave anything for future generations, so I could only choose to clone.”

Before long, Huang was contacting Sinogene, a pet-cloning company based in Beijing. An employee soon came to take a DNA sample from Garlic. Seven months, about $35,000, 40 embryos, and two miscarriages later, Garlic the clone was born.

When he first met the cat in August, Huang was disappointed. The cloned Garlic did not have the same mark on his chin as the original did, along with a different eye color. However, Huang is “willing to accept that there are some situations in which there are limitations to the technology.”

Sinogene will continue to take care of Garlic for around another month to make sure he is healthy, before giving the kitten to Huang.