I used to believe it strange, until I started doing fur work and doing my own tanning then stopped tanning and then became my own buyer and end user of fur.

I have prepped so many dogs and cats, and other smaller furred creatures and sent them to be tanned for people who cannot normally go on with out them and cannot bare the thought of putting them in a burial spot somewhere, it is amazing !

But never had any one ask to have me make them something out of them, always just tan them and be done !!

There is so much un-normal stuff people do with pets, I'm not ever surprised to read or be asked to help with such any more !

What will they do when a spouse dies, a child, their parents? There are three options. You die first, they die first or you die at the same time.

A good friend of mine is a very skilled taxidermist. He mounted three bucks for me and a full body mount albino doe.
I went down to see him one day to check on the progress of the full body mount, and there was a cat lying lazily on the top of the deep freeze with one front leg hanging down off the edge like a cat normally does. It had heavily lidded eyes like a sleeping cat which seldom ever seem to go fully asleep. I reached over and petted it and it was as hard as a carp! Creeped me out big time.
He is a very skilled taxidermist as I have indicated. It took him a while to stop laughing at me.
Well, I asked him if he does a lot of them and he said no and he'd rather not do them because if it does not turn out, he can't just go alley hunting and find another one.
He said he charges 3 times for what any comparable animal would cost.
I asked what was the strangest pet he ever mounted.
He said an elderly woman came in with her beloved pair of monkeys who had passed away close to the same time which she had kept in the freezer until she finally had the gumption to bring them to him.
So he tells me that he was squirming about this one. VanDykes don't carry monkey forms.
He finally had to come out and ask her, "Do you want them mounted?"
She replied, "Oh heavens no! Just holding hands..."

that's just odd,

A guy I know had a basset hound that was getting old


Before it died he asked me when the time came if I'd skin it for him and tan it so he could use the hide as a motorcycle seat cover.


I declined

An older friend of mine, before I was born, used to trap and sell a lot of feral cats, with another guy I met through him. When the market ended, they tanned a bunch of cat hides and sewed them together and lined the entire inside and seats of a car with them. They went on a double first date, with two women, who really liked the soft seat covers, until they figured out what they were.

Keith

had a guy once ask me to skin the haunch (?) area oof his wifes appaloosa horse when they had to put it down, I refused.

There was an episode of Mama’s Family where Iola had her dead cat mounted in it’s bed a it meowed when it was touched.

You guys are creeping me out- but I'm totally ok with the cat thing.

It's also a great skim from an old Red Skelton bit. No truth to it whatsoever.
Except for the cat part of the story. He really got me on that one.

5 Reasons Why Wearing Fur Is Not Like Wearing Your Pet (truthaboutfur.com)

https://www.truthaboutfur.com/5-reasons-must-wear-leather-fur/

This entire thread is just odd.

Taxidermist friend of mine did a cat for a man and his wife one time, they came in and she was crying and carrying on while looking at forms. Said that was the last time he was doing that