Baba, right, plays with her cloned sibling Tabouli, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004, in San Francisco. The kittens are the first two cats cloned by a new cloning technology developed by a pet cloning company, who produced the kittens as a precursor to production of the first batch of cat clones for the public. It will cost $50,000 to have your cat cloned. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

AP - Aug 05 04

Aug 10, 2004 (TAP) -- Following the lead of British scientists who produced the clone "Dolly and an American company who last week cloned two cute kittens, a team of French scientists today announced it had successfully cloned two rats, in an experiment in which 123 embryos and one rat pup died.

The surviving rats, which the scientists call Gabriel and
Henri seem physically normal in most respects. However, both appeared to be fearful and anxious, cowering in the corner of their cage.

When the French scientists attempted to have Gabriel and Henri walk through a tradition rat maze for intelligence testing both rats reared up on their hind legs and raised their hands as if in surrender.

The scientists finally induced the rats to walk through a maze by placing a bit of cheese that smelled like people's feet at every turn.

Having solved the worldwide rat shortage problem, the French scientists proudly announced their next plan to clone roaches and slugs.

"Eventually, we think this technology will produce French citizens," said one scientist. "We think we are quite close to that."

(Fritz's Note;  the French actually cloned two rats named Jacques and Dominique in late 2003.)