I love taxidermy, it’s no secret. Often when I confess my love for it I get off looks and judgement but I love it. I don’t come from a large background of hunters, my Grandpa and Great Uncle hunted but they hardly ever had anything stuffed. They just hunted to fill the freezer and feed the kids.

I think my earliest introduction to taxidermy is a Mountain Goat skin my uncle had tanned. It would lay across the back of the couch, the colour of snow but the coarse, bristly hairs sticking in your ears and tickling your cheeks when you sat down. Now when I see Mountain GoatI know exactly what it would be like to pet one.  My second experience with Taxidermy was the movie Hope Floats, where the Grandmother was a Taxidermist (from what I can remember of the movie) and she had a full bear on her front porch dressed up in a frilly apron. I thought it was so clever. Third, in high school, we did a questionnaire on the careers that would be suited to us. My top three careers were model, actress and taxidermist. So, it’s always been on my mind.

However, not until recently, have I developed an obsession. I want some. To me it doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll hang it proudly in my house. I’ve been scouring the classifieds and putting up wanted adds and I’ve had a few bites but it’s been out of my price range. Also, my fiance says he wants something “cool” and not just a regular ol’ deer head. Needless to say, it’s been a little tricky find something that we can all agree on.

Fur and Feathers Taxidermy

We visited Fur & Feathers Taxidermy recently and I was so impressed. There really is an art to it. I thought it was a lot of just buying a form and fitting the skin over it but, as I found out, a taxidermist is a sculptor. The proprietor of the shop was very accommodating to my questions and took us into the back to see the process. First of all, his store front was amazing! He had a full moose that he had to remove ceiling tiles to fit it in the shop, they are HUGE beasts! He also had a full jaguar! He bought the skin from a zoo when the jaguar passed away and did an award winning job of mounting it. It felt like I was standing right in front of the real thing. In the back, he had a kodiak bear form that he was in the process of carving to fit the skin. Even skinless, it was intimidating.

I could go on and on but was is a blog post with out some pictures?

We both think this is great and would have it our house for sure.

This is the cutest thing ever! I love everything about this and would not hesitate to have it my house (for the right price, we're on a budget).

World Taxidermy Championship, a thing of beauty.

I really like the idea of a piece from the Great White North

We bothe LOVE the birds