you know what fascinates me?
taxidermy.
have you ever actually thought about it? it’s worth exercising a couple of brain cells over. it’s the strangest concept.
let’s all take dead animals and stuff them and put them in the lounge. yes, lets.
there are a couple of different kinds of taxidermy i want to look at here. now let me just preface this by saying that i am no taxidermy pro, i’m not a taxidermalist or anything like that. but this is what i’ve gathered on the subject so far.
the first kind of taxidermy lover we’ll discuss briefly is made up of those folks who go hunting and then taxidermy whatever it is that they kill. as proof i suppose.
let’s call them ‘the hunter gatherer’ type of taxidermist.
look people, this says, i am a real man. i killed this large beast, and now i make it stare out at me daily as i read my newspaper, so that it never forgets i am the king.
there’s even creative animal taxidermy, like this. the man (i’m sorry, but it’s almost certainly a man) thinks – let me recreate these animals as they would have been in the wild, had i not killed them with my shotgun.
in about three years time someone will show this man how a camera works and he will realise that he needn’t actually have gone to all the trouble.
i’m no fan of hunting, it’s not for me. i suppose i can sort of, kind of, maybe understand why people do it. sort of. and there’s the whole culling aspect which i’ve heard is a necessity. but at it’s basest form i don’t really think it’s so lekker.
ok, enough with these, i don’t want to boar you. bwahahahahaha sorry. couldn’t resist.
next up we have the freaks and lunatics who choose to have their poor deceased pets taxidermied.
you would be astonished, amazed, awed and appendaged (sorry, needed another word starting with ‘a’) to discover how many people are really into it and how many companies there are just waiting to shove a handfull of sawdust up fido’s ass when he pegs.
in total there were 222 000 results for ‘taxidermy pets’ on google.
here’s one:
Perpetual Pet.
I love how they all have little pay off lines.
like ‘The Perfect Plan for the Perfect Pet’, or ‘Because only a true friend can leave paw prints in your heart’.
they’re so soppy, i think they should be more real, if i had one of these company’s my pay off line would be something like:
‘Keeping Fluffy Fluffy for all eternity.’
or
‘At least he’ll never chew on your shoes again.’
here’s their corporate gumpf, it’s classic:
etc etc, you get the point
here are some pics and comments from all the happy customers over there at Perpetual Pet:
not so sparkey anymore, hey sparkey? they might have to quickly change her name to unsparky, or sleepy, or comatosey or something like that.
oh dear, poor dusty. i must say he looks remarkably alive for something that’s DEAD! i think it would really creep me out to have dusty staring at me through unblinking eyes from across the room “forever”. and you just know he’s going to make a shocking watchdog. at least you don’t have to take him walkies anymore.
seems to be doing it quite yet, thank goodness.
That is so freaking creepy!!!!
I have lost a number of pets to traffic over the years & I can tell you with a 100% certainty that having them stuffed and nearly sitting on them everyday would scare the bejeezus out of me…
i heard of a woman that stripped her dogs bones then hung the full, anatomically correct skeleton up on her porch as a wind chime. ‘stru, promise.
lol! good stuff!
funny liquid i was thinking about all my pets who went to that big farm in the sky. wonder if you can stuff a squashed animal?
no chryssa, really? less like a wind chime, more like a scarecrow! creepy.
hiiii bob *waves hand like mad woman*
Hi Paige!!!
How cool would it be if my mom had stuffed my dad and laid him out on the couch like he was taking a nap, sort of like Naomi? We could put the remote in his hand and when the cat dies, stuff it and curl it up on his chest.
now you see, bob, that’s more the kind of comment we’ve come to expect from you!
that’s what i dig about you.
my friend had a cat that came to be about 20 years old. she had a habit of hissing and then attacking your ankles if you walked past 2 closely. she always said that when the cat had shed all its nine lives she would have her stuffed and mounted in ankle-attack position with a button on the stand which would make the hissing sound when pushed.
Hysterical!!!!!!!!!!!!! Believe it or not, the killer in my book has a stuffed pooch in their bedroom. But I’m really starting to like the idea of a pooch bone wind chime, too! Sheesh, talk about fact being stranger than fiction 😉
Where was I when this was posted! I once asked my parents if we stuff pets (following and inquiring prospect’s phone call) and they said “no, we’ve taken a moral stand on pets, race horses and live stock”. Apparently African Game carries more authenticity …. does it? All that being said and done, how many people get to say they know a taxidermist Paige? Well, yes we were in advertising together … :-))) Oh ps its Nicole – I started a blog for a friend and now it posts comments from that blog hence the ‘anonymity’ xx
Nicole, i really thought of you when I re-posted this post last night under ‘old favourites’. then i got to thinking about your gorgeous artworks. sending you lots of love.
xxxx