Odd thing about a pet that died

I found this email I received to be kinda strange. I've never heard of it being done.

"I have a really close friend that lost her dog that she loved and misses very much.
She wants to make a pillow out of her pelt that a taxidermist who was able to give her from the pet.
However, the taxidermist could not or would not doing the pillow making for her.
Can you or the company make a pillow using the pelt if the pelt were sent to you?
If I knew how to sew and had the equipment, I would do it myself."

That’s definitely odd. I’ve lost some good ones but dang that’s creepy.

Commercial trade in dog or cat fur is illegal. Does that apply when crafting one for someone else for money? I have no idea.

So the taxidermist skinned the dog but wouldn't make a pillow out of it?

If it has been tanned it looks like easy money for someone that has the ability craft a pillow out of it

Our local taxidermist has been known to freeze dry mount a couple of pets for folks.

I have a book on taxidermy that basically forbids it. It is an old book but it warns that you cannot capture the emotions and relationship you have with a beloved pet by preserving any part of their physical body. That isn’t the purpose of taxidermy. Should be for trophy/ memory or science…like museum pieces.

Yes I agree, it is creepy to want that done.
I have had clients in the past who refused to bury their deceased pet, put them in the freezer and would occasionally take them out and sit with them on the couch. That is insane behavior and very disrespectful towards your pet. Let them rest in peace

Our beliefs on morning after loss are really :developed tradition and Mundane compared to much of the world.
...to me it's odd; to them- not

At the outdoor show in Harrisburg PA ,
There was a taxidermy display of a full mount beagle , running a full mount rabbit ,
I thought it very well done , but it drew a lot of mixed emotions..

Who ever owned that dog has a mental problem. There is nothing wrong with missing the dog and wishing it was the good old days, but it is dead they need to figure that out.

Something like this?

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HEQus1iVa9o?feature=share[/video]

Any possibility it’s an anti? Sounds a little hinky to me.

I wouldn't have a problem making a pillow out of it for her.

D C, you mentioned that commerce in pet parts is illegal. Can you cite that? If it is a federal law then she would have to have it made in her State and not send it across State lines.

If it is illegal, the way you could tell if she is a anti trying to entrap you, is to offer to make it for free. If she declines, then that would make me suspicious.

That's really Strange.

Late 90's I sent some feral cats to NAFA via UPS in Stoughton. They were not happy. I figured I could still get a buck or so for them. I thought cat skins were still the preferred drum skin for banjos.

I always said I was going to have my GSD tanned when she kicked it

2 things stopped me

first she was shedding bad loosing clumps of hair very near the end so it wasn't the beautiful coat she had always had
90# and she would have graded very well any year before she kicked it at 14-15

the second my wife said no

she also kicked it while I was away hunting

I had actually gotten the idea from the Polish cabin at Old World WI where the prized family dog had been tanned and used as the trim on the overcoat.

you know waste not , everything can have a second use.

Why not I’ve seen people take small dogs to taxidermy to immortalize them , not for me but whatever floats one’s boat

When I was a kid we moved into a new house and my mom went over to introduce herself to the neighbor- he was skinning a poodle for a lady that wanted it mounted- that young man became an ornithologist and worked for the Milwaukee County Zoo. She was creeped out.

think about it this way , owner is in their 80-90s not doing great and was always comforted by having the dog lay on their lap or next to them, not going to start a new puppy no energy for that would probably trip on a puppy and break a hip or might have had to move into the assisted living already.

it would depend a bunch on the story , set expectations low as you don't know what condition the fur is in or if it is blue , the hair might slip , not having done domestic dogs before.

if it isn't illegal in whatever state that person or you are in , I don't see why not.

I would suggest just skin and tan and felt back rather than a pillow

Eh I could see someone that had a dog that liked to lay on the couch wanting a pillow to sit on the couch. Not too crazy is it?

Think of how many people would think our sheds were crazy. lol.

Pete- did you hang out in Plainfield Wisconsin as a kid

I always tease my wife that her Pekingese's would make a nice hat...of course that will never happen...but they would!, lol

I heard of pets getting mounted, and didn't Roy Rogers have Trigger full size mounted? But yeah, a pillow from the pelt is a bit odd...and nothing I've heard of before.

When I was a kid I went in the fur buyers, closed the door, he worked out of his basement, great guy old Ezra Vincent was. I set my first load down and looked at the back of the door and there was this beautiful black pelt. I took it down and asked what is this? He looked up and said "Cat" I was shocked he said what are you doing with yours? I answered fox bait, coon bait. He said I'm getting 6-8 dollars a piece right now, that was in 1981.
Times have changed sadly.
Think about Roy Rogers had Trigger mounted. Ever watch Last Man Standing where they mount Ed's dog for him. It can be done. Here we would have to mount one of the wife's beefers, a bit pricey. LOL

I also heard of sheep getting mounted- but that doesn't make it right.

no I was not that far from where you are more over by Bong.

Eagleye, not quite sure how to take that one? LOL

If I were her husband I would want someone else handling my remains!!

[quote=elsmasho82]I have a book on taxidermy that basically forbids it. It is an old book but it warns that you cannot capture the emotions and relationship you have with a beloved pet by preserving any part of their physical body. That isn’t the purpose of taxidermy. Should be for trophy/ memory or science…like museum pieces.

Above is probably solid advice!

Was working on a real estate deal. Met the buyer at his home to sign docs.. He noticed me looking at a couple stuffed dogs. The quality was awful and one looked teririying (mean). He said he regretted letting the first one be done and had little choice in the second one. He offered to have a expensive funeral and bury them but wife refused. He said they scared the grand kids that remembered them when they were alive. One of the older ones even referred to his house as "Pet Cemetery". He seemed quick concerned/hurt with that.

Not only a nice comfy pillow but some good nutritious jerky too.

I sold fur to Ezra as a teenager. He worked with my grandfather at what was then called Gillette Tire Co. He always treated me fairly. This would have been the early 1960s.

Dogs are family members to most, so this just seems morbidly weird....

Roy Rodgers had Trigger Stuffed

nice looking coats , what ever keeps you warm in a storm, I just think the choice of foot wear needs to match the warmth of the coat or what's the point. yes I understand it is a runway show
some nice knee high boots with fur trim at the top would be better.

Sounds like bait to me.

Whoever wrote that...........English is not their first language

I was at a fur auction within the last 8 years and there was a guy there trying to sell a green husky pelt as a wolf. Not through the sale but privately. I guess he though he'd find someone stupid enough as this was here in KS. I think someone run him off the premises.

The way that I figure, if you could use your pet in a way that didn't show off that you pet is dead, it would be one of the best ways to honer your pet.

My sister lives on a place that at one time was a fur farm. They raised black cats. When she first moved there, there were a lot of feral black cats running around. When I first started trapping Goldbergs always had a price listing for feral house cats. Seems like it was always about $1 to $3.
Also I had a relative who had a sheep ranch in N Dakota. He would skin his dogs when they died and have them made into gloves.

Walt, for me it was Ezra or Mueller's, I'll just say as you, Ezra always was a straight dealer.

There was a company that would take your pets shed hair that accumulated over time and make a sweater/blanket or afghan with it.. they ran it the same as wool.. they would clean it spin it and make the cloths or afgan.

been a few yrs since i saw the ad..

A lot of the dogs up on the coast of James bay have fur indistinguishable from wolf,since they have wolf genetics and most of them run loose.
Those dogs wouldnt be what most people think of as pets though.

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