Pet Taxidermy
Is This The Right Option For Me?
Taxidermy of a pet is a very permanent process and once it has been done, cannot be altered or undone, so it is important to take your time deciding.
Sometimes pets are not suitable to be worked on due to their age, illness or accidents, as your pet will be immortalised in their current condition. Taxidermy can freeze time but sadly cannot bring back an animal to the prime of its life.
Trying to recreate the face of a loved one you have known every day for such a long time is a difficult thing to do. You have known the animal all its life and recognise the little nuances of its face, how it sits, its character and in essence what makes them the animal you know and love.
I list these points as pet taxidermy is such a unique and emotional process so I like to make sure that owners know what to expect. It is often more of a memorial piece of your pet than an exact replication of them in life.
Alongside taxidermy there are a few other options open when considering pet memorials...
- Paw prints taken with ink on paper
- Paw/nose impressions into clay
- 3d cast of paws with a mould and plaster
- Samples of fur and whiskers in a vial or shadow frame
- Patch of fur preserving (this could be backed onto fabric or mounted into a frame)
- Limb taxidermy preservation, I.e. a paw or tail preserved singularly. This can be capped with a metal end or mounted on a pedestal for example
- Full taxidermy mount
- Skull cleaning
- Skeleton cleaning (these could then be kept in a memorial box)
- Skeleton articulation, a full Skeleton cleaned and posed.
- Cremation of the inner body is also possible to coincide with taxidermy but not skeletal cleaning.
More avenues to consider are pet portraiture in traditional mediums (i.e. paints, pastels, pencil), digital renderings and needle-felt portraits which can include fur clippings /whiskers in the finished piece. Of course multiples of these options can coincide with one another.