Just a quote that I happened on today...

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. - Charles Bukowski

Convalescing a Strange Fox

This has been in the works for some time now.  Co-owner of the spa that I work at asked me if I would take a look at her sister in law's fox, that her dog had gotten a hold of during a fit of anxiety.  I agreed and today I finally met him.

Meet Wilfred...

So super handsome!

Wilfred was maimed by Fletch, R's dog.

A bit more than a flesh wound, he will be like the bionic man when I'm finished.

It is my job to restore Wilfred to his old glory.  I'm not going to lie, the condition of the pelt has me a little concerned.  It's very dry.  I will need to rebuild the leg form and then reattach the pelt and pelt pieces to the form.  This is going to be very detail oriented and time consuming.  But who doesn't like a challenge?

I am so happy that these opportunities are coming into my life!!!

Wilfred also enjoys car rides....

And meeting new friends...

Linus says a typical canine, "Hello".

Beamish is a little more confrontational...

who am i?

What makes a girl thrust herself into a world of death and reanimation?  I have always been a fairly dark person (on the inside)...

Clearly a little sassy on the outside.

My parents (mostly my mother) constantly wondered why I would bring home drawings of coffins and want to snuggle and throw funerals for my goldfish and other pets (complete with little painted boxes, with handles, handmade gravestones, and funeral rights, grave side.  Nothing got flushed in our house.  These little rituals, with full processions always lead me to think about death in not only an end to life, but the beginning of a fantastic new journey.  As I got older and gained access to books on the funeral industry, and Victorian mourning (OH THE FASHION!), I became even more obsessed.  So I decided on my 30th birthday I would try to learn something new, that new thing, taxidermy.

Much to my mother's chagrin, the first taste of dismantling that fox and mounting it on a foam mount has been a fire that's burned very brightly in my heart ever since.  Yes, these creatures are dead, but it's a privilege for me to have the experience of recreating life with them, or in different circumstances, creating a loving monument to the treasured beasties they were in live.

By day, I work with the living as an aesthetician, beautifying and working on sometimes complex skin conditions.  During my free time I hang out with my dogs, watch obscure documentaries on puppetry, collect bones and bugs, go to drag shows, read fashion mags, practice yoga and try to have as much of a creative outlet as I possibly can.  I also have a shameful weakness for the Jersey Shore.

The first few posts will detail my quest to make a lasting memento of my dear friend D's long lost ferret, who passed away due to adrenal disease.  We originally had thought of getting the bones nice and clean, and then I would painstakingly put them back together as a mount for her.  But I've only worked with Maceration before...

Single point buck skull with lower mandible and vertebrae.

And a Ferrets bones are so small I was afraid that I would lose some in the process.

So it came to me last night during a dream, why not try mummification.  Thus the process has begun.  I hope to have her beloved Pip back to her by spring.  It's been too long already.

Walking that really thin line, or tight rope...

So many of you know me as your fun loving aesthetician or makeup artist.  But since my 30th year, I've been studying and practicing the art of taxidermy.  I spent my 30th birthday elbow deep in a fox that some kind gentleman on the internet was kind enough to send me as my first mount.

Tonight, I am embarking on the beginning of a project for a friend.  My dearest friend Diana had to put her ferret down two years ago, and brought him straight to me for preservation.  My original idea was to clean the bones and reassemble the skeleton for her.  Sadly, I'm afraid to loose any of the bones, so in an inspiration I decided to try mummification.   So meet Fritz.... (guitar pick for scale)

Fritz is a feeder mouse rescued from the pet store freezer, in order to fuel my desire to study small anatomy and do some work that's not huge.  I thought that anatomy might be similar only in a smaller scale.

So I made an abdominal incision and separated the fascia from the skin working from the edge of the incision around back making sure not to disturb any of the organs.

Once I had gotten everything separated I had to snip off at the leg joints and at the base of the skull.  I'll spare you all the pile of gore next to the skin.  I did manage to get the intestines, liver, kidneys and heart all in nice little piles, but everything was so small it seemed silly to preserve them.  Thus, the next picture a hollow little mousy.

Clean and freshly washed.

Scraped clean and coated with the first coat of resin and preservation powder.

Resined ears, these will not be wrapped in the finished product.

Second coat of resins and cotton soaked in preservation resins and essential oils.

All sewn up.  Coat of resin on the face, ears and tail.  Feet tied together for drying and resined as well.

Buried in preservation salts.

I've read 60 days for a full grown human and a dry place, but since this critter is so small I'm going to keep an eye on it for a week or so and see how things start looking.  So far, this is the nicest smelling piece of taxidermy I've ever done.  I look forward to seeing how this turns out.  The next step will include wrapping it and resining it again.    More when the drying process is complete.