Thought about it once because I was soooo attached to a dog but decided she was better remembered in my heart and thoughts than to become some sort of furniture piece requiring dusting etc. Plus if not an EXCELLENT taxidermy job, they do downgrade a tad over the years, get rather moulty looking. Now seems sorta creepy to me but I did consider it … granted rather briefly.
Nothing would creep me out more than having a stuffed Sparky after her days on this earth are over. At 15, I know that we are closer to that day than I want to acknowledge. But she’s the Dog O’ My Heart, not the Dog O’ My Eyes…so I don’t need to see a replica. It’s her life that has given me such joy, not her body. The only thing that might creep me out more is if she was cloned. No way.
Now if it was possible to bottle the smell of her, I’d do that in a heartbeat. I’d have one that was the smell of her sweet knees, one that was the smell of her after a rainshower, one that was the smell of her after sleeping on freshly laundered quilts, and one that was the smell of the top of her head on her “kissing spot”.
I’ve given my husband explicit instructions that should I ever be in a coma, he is to bring one (or all) of the dogs to wherever I am, preferably after everyone has had a good romp in a field in the rain, and place them on the bed where I can smell them or touch them in some way. I have no doubt that would bring me back from the brink…and back with a smile on my face.
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Frito feet you mean! I would never want to do that with my furbabies. They never look like them anyway. Pretty gross. Let them live in our hearts.
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Eau d’ Frito Toes….bwaaahhhhh! That’s it!
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My husband thinks I’m nuts because I love the smell of a dog’s feet. So I’m not the only one!
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Someone finally said it! “That popcorny smell of their feet.” I’ve always thought it smelled like a movie theater. I love that snell. What IS that?
The ONLY replication of ANY animal I want to see is in a photograph, painting or sculpture. No antlers, no horns, no fur, no ears, no paws/hands, no skins, no heads, no penis, no body parts, as beautiful as some are, they ONLY belong to the original wearer and look best where they come from.
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Oh! I miss the smell of Lilly so much. She always smelled slightly smoky, like she’d been sitting near a very fragrant campfire.
She’s been gone nearly seven years, and I still can conjure the smell of her furry, smoky neck as if she was right here.
I had a great great uncle who loved his rough collie. After her death, he had her skinned and made into a rug so they could continue to be “close”. Ew.
I can understand wanting to hold on to a lock of fur, or paw prints or something like that, but the idea of a mounted animal is just…no. And besides, most of my animals are quite elderly when they pass and certainly not looking their all time best.
My neighbor has a taxidermied black bear in his living room. It’s creepy and offputting. I can’t imagine how I’d feel about it if I’d known the bear personally…ew.
Now that is just awful. Can’t think of anything more horrible than having my sweet dogs or cats made into a rug after death! UGH! As for a bear. I detest hunting and can’t stand these trophies!
I joke that I am going to make stew out of the cats and mittens out of their fur but I don’t think I could actually do something like that. That would be even worse then the stuffed cat.
We always joke with Trouble that her coat is so soft that we should make her into a coat. We are joking of course, she isn’t big enough to be a coat.
I love cat paws. They are so cute and they smell pretty good. I like how their pinky sticks out when they are relaxing. When they strech I tickle in between their toes.
As for stuffing them, no way. To creepy and when it gets wrecked and its time for the dump you have to deal with loosing them again.
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I have the ashes, pawprints and a lock of hair from my deceased pets but the idea of a stuffed Loki just creeps me out.
I am reminded of the film “Hope Floats” where Gina Rowlands as Mama was a pretty kooky taxidermist. I loved her and the crazy things she did with those animals tickled a place inside me I can’t really explain. But the thought of mounting my girl,(shudder) seeing the Pit Bull in the freezer ( in the link) really creeped me out. No I have too much love and respect for her or any animal to have them “appear” alive. What animates her, her eternal spark would be gone and no matter how good the job was it could never capture her and I am hoping that she will be an Elderbull when she departs this mortal coil. and so not prime stuffing condition.
Most pet mounting I have seen when I was an antiques and curiosities dealer were really terrible and wonky. I always wondered if the people that had them done were happy with the results.?? Some People….Hum.
My favorite thing about the otherwise not-too-great film “Dinner for Schmucks” is the taxidermy he does with the mice. The presentations are so well done and for me, captivating.
I would never consider it. All our animals are cremated, and I have tons of ashes. When I go, I am being cremated, and I have left instructions for me to be mixed with them, and then where the mix should be scattered. Once they have left their earthly bodies (and you know that point, if you’ve lost a beloved), they are nothing more than mortal shells – no souls inside anymore. I also have a huge necklace of wearable urns, and a tiny bit of everyone’s ashes goes into them, so when I wear it, they are all close to my heart, literally.
Couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t (IMO). We let our dog go because she had become trapped in her Earthly body. She was a champion in her prime (in terms of her physique and health). A dog’s dog. After 16 years on Earth, her body no longer served her well and we set her free. The thought of having that vessel around would just never occur to me. Our girl was her soul, not her body.
Not my cuppa. Even very good and well-maintained taxidermy gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I have memories and photographs, that’s enough. Though I hope to be able to afford small portraits one day … actually, what I’d *really* like would be a cartoon of our morning routine – the dog’s happy kibble dance, the cats talking up a storm and trying to trip us up, our sleep-clumsy hands accidentally scattering crunchies and flinging forkfuls of wet food.
Oh! They make them out of people too. Soylent Green is diamonds.
Brochure indicates the price range as $3k – $20k. I guess that means we’ll be continuing with the hole in the ground option for disposing of our pet remains.
Way too creepy! No, I have all mine cremated. I thought about burial in the yard but then I would never be able to move and leave them behind. My plan is the same as Morgana’s; I want my own ashes combined with theirs at some point and then scattered together. In the meantime I have them displayed around the house in ceramic pots shaped like cats or in decorative wood boxes. db, I also agree that the best way to honor a deceased animal companion’s memory is to rescue another one. I’ve had people criticize me for that, mistakenly assuming I was trying to replace the cat I lost.
I have my sweet girls favorite stuffed animal on my desk and if I bury my nose in it and close my eyes, it still smells of her. That and the ashes is enough. Like another commenter said someday they will be comingled with mine and we we will all be together again.
Speaking as someone very interested in taxidermy, taxidermists are highly discouraged from doing works of peoples’ pets. You can’t capture a pet’s personality. It’s just way too personal. Those who do it (along with those who mount illegal animals) are shunned.
I don’t know the personality of any pet I’ve ever seen taxidermied but nonetheless, they never look right to me. I always picture them saying “Help me”, which is surely not what the taxidermist intended.
A while after we’d gotten our Lab mix, she gained a lot of weight and was looking rather like a furry ottoman. We, jokingly, said we could have her stuffed, as she’s the perfect height to put your feet up on, but she is always wagging her tail and doesn’t stand still long enough. We got her slimmed down a lot, and now, with her much nicer physique, she looks too leggy (although she’s really the same height), so we tell her she’s not cushioned enough to be a footstool. Besides, I don’t dust very often either, and it’s bad enough when it builds up on my bookshelves. I really wouldn’t want to have to dust her.
When I was a kid, we had a cat who we think was part Maine Coon. Had the softest, most lushest fur EVER. My dad kept threatening that when the cat died he was going to have his fur made into glove liners….he didn’t, and my mom threatened to crucify him every time he brought it up.
I have had Shelties for many years (most of them rescues). They hace a double coat and the undercoat can be spun into lovely soft wool to knit or crochet into something. I have saved the fur they shed from grooming them and hope to spin or have spun into wool. This is something that can be done while they are still with us. I just have not found the time to do this but still am saving the fur. As for the precious ones I have lost, I have their ashes, locks of their fur and thousands of photographs and the wonderful memories. I would not dream of having one stuffed but the thought of having a scarf made from the fur they shed is very desirable to me.
Using the brushed off hair from a pet would be the only acceptable part to be used of an animal. I have bags of fur brushed from my kids from years of brushing. Does anyone know where/who spins hair into threads for fabric making? Does anyone know who can make fabric from hair?
nope – nada – uh uh – absolutely not
my cats (and dogs) are much more than the body they wear and i don’t see that it would be a very positive thing for me . . .
nope
i think that rescuing another animal in their honor would be a much better option – just my opinion
you said exactly what I was thinking!
Thought about it once because I was soooo attached to a dog but decided she was better remembered in my heart and thoughts than to become some sort of furniture piece requiring dusting etc. Plus if not an EXCELLENT taxidermy job, they do downgrade a tad over the years, get rather moulty looking. Now seems sorta creepy to me but I did consider it … granted rather briefly.
I can see people doing it tho.
See, I’m not that good of a duster anyway so…
Never-my babies live in my heart.
Nothing would creep me out more than having a stuffed Sparky after her days on this earth are over. At 15, I know that we are closer to that day than I want to acknowledge. But she’s the Dog O’ My Heart, not the Dog O’ My Eyes…so I don’t need to see a replica. It’s her life that has given me such joy, not her body. The only thing that might creep me out more is if she was cloned. No way.
Now if it was possible to bottle the smell of her, I’d do that in a heartbeat. I’d have one that was the smell of her sweet knees, one that was the smell of her after a rainshower, one that was the smell of her after sleeping on freshly laundered quilts, and one that was the smell of the top of her head on her “kissing spot”.
Melinda: I WHOLEHEARTEDLY second THAT emotion! Only I’d add the smell, that popcorny smell of their feet.
Eau du Frito Toes. :-)
I’ve given my husband explicit instructions that should I ever be in a coma, he is to bring one (or all) of the dogs to wherever I am, preferably after everyone has had a good romp in a field in the rain, and place them on the bed where I can smell them or touch them in some way. I have no doubt that would bring me back from the brink…and back with a smile on my face.
Frito feet you mean! I would never want to do that with my furbabies. They never look like them anyway. Pretty gross. Let them live in our hearts.
Eau d’ Frito Toes….bwaaahhhhh! That’s it!
My husband thinks I’m nuts because I love the smell of a dog’s feet. So I’m not the only one!
Someone finally said it! “That popcorny smell of their feet.” I’ve always thought it smelled like a movie theater. I love that snell. What IS that?
The ONLY replication of ANY animal I want to see is in a photograph, painting or sculpture. No antlers, no horns, no fur, no ears, no paws/hands, no skins, no heads, no penis, no body parts, as beautiful as some are, they ONLY belong to the original wearer and look best where they come from.
Oh! I miss the smell of Lilly so much. She always smelled slightly smoky, like she’d been sitting near a very fragrant campfire.
She’s been gone nearly seven years, and I still can conjure the smell of her furry, smoky neck as if she was right here.
I had a great great uncle who loved his rough collie. After her death, he had her skinned and made into a rug so they could continue to be “close”. Ew.
I can understand wanting to hold on to a lock of fur, or paw prints or something like that, but the idea of a mounted animal is just…no. And besides, most of my animals are quite elderly when they pass and certainly not looking their all time best.
My neighbor has a taxidermied black bear in his living room. It’s creepy and offputting. I can’t imagine how I’d feel about it if I’d known the bear personally…ew.
Now that is just awful. Can’t think of anything more horrible than having my sweet dogs or cats made into a rug after death! UGH! As for a bear. I detest hunting and can’t stand these trophies!
I joke that I am going to make stew out of the cats and mittens out of their fur but I don’t think I could actually do something like that. That would be even worse then the stuffed cat.
Daniela
We always joke with Trouble that her coat is so soft that we should make her into a coat. We are joking of course, she isn’t big enough to be a coat.
I love cat paws. They are so cute and they smell pretty good. I like how their pinky sticks out when they are relaxing. When they strech I tickle in between their toes.
As for stuffing them, no way. To creepy and when it gets wrecked and its time for the dump you have to deal with loosing them again.
I have the ashes, pawprints and a lock of hair from my deceased pets but the idea of a stuffed Loki just creeps me out.
Daniela
I am reminded of the film “Hope Floats” where Gina Rowlands as Mama was a pretty kooky taxidermist. I loved her and the crazy things she did with those animals tickled a place inside me I can’t really explain. But the thought of mounting my girl,(shudder) seeing the Pit Bull in the freezer ( in the link) really creeped me out. No I have too much love and respect for her or any animal to have them “appear” alive. What animates her, her eternal spark would be gone and no matter how good the job was it could never capture her and I am hoping that she will be an Elderbull when she departs this mortal coil. and so not prime stuffing condition.
Most pet mounting I have seen when I was an antiques and curiosities dealer were really terrible and wonky. I always wondered if the people that had them done were happy with the results.?? Some People….Hum.
My favorite thing about the otherwise not-too-great film “Dinner for Schmucks” is the taxidermy he does with the mice. The presentations are so well done and for me, captivating.
I would never consider it. All our animals are cremated, and I have tons of ashes. When I go, I am being cremated, and I have left instructions for me to be mixed with them, and then where the mix should be scattered. Once they have left their earthly bodies (and you know that point, if you’ve lost a beloved), they are nothing more than mortal shells – no souls inside anymore. I also have a huge necklace of wearable urns, and a tiny bit of everyone’s ashes goes into them, so when I wear it, they are all close to my heart, literally.
Ick. The idea is just too creepazoid for me. Ashes to ashes, return to the earth whence you came.
Plus I am a lousy duster and vacuumer, any artifact would be covered in cat hair and gray dust in no time. Which would look even creepier.
Couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t (IMO). We let our dog go because she had become trapped in her Earthly body. She was a champion in her prime (in terms of her physique and health). A dog’s dog. After 16 years on Earth, her body no longer served her well and we set her free. The thought of having that vessel around would just never occur to me. Our girl was her soul, not her body.
No, it’s just the skin of an animal over a model piece of Styrofoam.
Not my cuppa. Even very good and well-maintained taxidermy gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I have memories and photographs, that’s enough. Though I hope to be able to afford small portraits one day … actually, what I’d *really* like would be a cartoon of our morning routine – the dog’s happy kibble dance, the cats talking up a storm and trying to trip us up, our sleep-clumsy hands accidentally scattering crunchies and flinging forkfuls of wet food.
Such a great description of your morning routine! Sounds like my house… <3
Love the mental image of your morning routine *s*.
One word…EWWWW!
I’ve heard you can have diamonds made out of your pet’s ashes. I’d do that. Anyone else?
really? you can make diamonds out of their ashes? Nah, if that were possible, people’d be bedecked in diamonds I should think.
Yeah. Ashes are carbon. Diamonds are made (naturally) from carbon being compressed over years in the ground. Here’s one of the websites…http://www.lifegem.com/secondary/beloved_pets_main2006.aspx
Basically, man-made diamonds!
Oh! They make them out of people too. Soylent Green is diamonds.
Brochure indicates the price range as $3k – $20k. I guess that means we’ll be continuing with the hole in the ground option for disposing of our pet remains.
Heheh! That does make it a bit of a moot point!
Way too creepy! No, I have all mine cremated. I thought about burial in the yard but then I would never be able to move and leave them behind. My plan is the same as Morgana’s; I want my own ashes combined with theirs at some point and then scattered together. In the meantime I have them displayed around the house in ceramic pots shaped like cats or in decorative wood boxes. db, I also agree that the best way to honor a deceased animal companion’s memory is to rescue another one. I’ve had people criticize me for that, mistakenly assuming I was trying to replace the cat I lost.
I have my sweet girls favorite stuffed animal on my desk and if I bury my nose in it and close my eyes, it still smells of her. That and the ashes is enough. Like another commenter said someday they will be comingled with mine and we we will all be together again.
Speaking as someone very interested in taxidermy, taxidermists are highly discouraged from doing works of peoples’ pets. You can’t capture a pet’s personality. It’s just way too personal. Those who do it (along with those who mount illegal animals) are shunned.
I don’t know the personality of any pet I’ve ever seen taxidermied but nonetheless, they never look right to me. I always picture them saying “Help me”, which is surely not what the taxidermist intended.
A while after we’d gotten our Lab mix, she gained a lot of weight and was looking rather like a furry ottoman. We, jokingly, said we could have her stuffed, as she’s the perfect height to put your feet up on, but she is always wagging her tail and doesn’t stand still long enough. We got her slimmed down a lot, and now, with her much nicer physique, she looks too leggy (although she’s really the same height), so we tell her she’s not cushioned enough to be a footstool. Besides, I don’t dust very often either, and it’s bad enough when it builds up on my bookshelves. I really wouldn’t want to have to dust her.
I think it would totally creep me out.
When I was a kid, we had a cat who we think was part Maine Coon. Had the softest, most lushest fur EVER. My dad kept threatening that when the cat died he was going to have his fur made into glove liners….he didn’t, and my mom threatened to crucify him every time he brought it up.
I have had Shelties for many years (most of them rescues). They hace a double coat and the undercoat can be spun into lovely soft wool to knit or crochet into something. I have saved the fur they shed from grooming them and hope to spin or have spun into wool. This is something that can be done while they are still with us. I just have not found the time to do this but still am saving the fur. As for the precious ones I have lost, I have their ashes, locks of their fur and thousands of photographs and the wonderful memories. I would not dream of having one stuffed but the thought of having a scarf made from the fur they shed is very desirable to me.
Using the brushed off hair from a pet would be the only acceptable part to be used of an animal. I have bags of fur brushed from my kids from years of brushing. Does anyone know where/who spins hair into threads for fabric making? Does anyone know who can make fabric from hair?