World's First Cloned Cat Celebrates 18th Birthday, Still Feline Fine

The world's first cloned pet, a feline named Copy Cat, is celebrating a major milestone ... she's been on this Earth for a whopping 18 years!!!

Copy Cat, or CC for short, was cloned back in 2001 at Texas A&M University and she recently celebrated her 18th birthday on Dec. 22 at her adopted home in the Lone Star State.

It's a pretty momentous occasion ... when Copy Cat was created, researchers believed animal clones would die at young ages ... but CC is still pawing around.

CC's caretaker, Duane Kramer, helped spawn her in a lab and his wife, Shirley, adopted the cute critter shortly after her birth. Now, Copy Cat lives in a special shed in the Kramer's backyard in College Station.

Copy Cat's got a feline family of her own too ... she gave birth to a litter of 4 kittens back in 2006, and 3 survived -- their names are Tess, Tim and Zip.

Hooray for science!!!