Cat Memorial Pillow

Role: concept, preparation of fur and hide

The cat memorial pillow story: Over the 5 years of undiagnosed feline health issues preceding the passing of Cleocatra, my cat friend of 10 years, I developed the idea to memorialize this belly-rub-loving sedentary animal into a pillow, while learning the basics of tanning hides, working with fur, and at least two of the many proverbial ways to skin a cat. The first cat came to me during COVID lockdown, when a friend witnessed the fatal collision between a car and a street cat, collecting its still-warm body for storage in the freezer and an outdoor social activity (cat-skinning practice, of course) at a time when socializing was scarce—RIP 8-Ball.

Cleo, too, entered the freezer still-warm, an hour after her passing, and waited a few months for the emotions to subside and for me to gather my wits and witnesses for the extended process of turning her into a pillow. The adventure involved several craft sessions, including organizing a couple of collective workshops focused on (1) skinning an animal, (burying the remains,) fleshing the hide, salting the hide, and (2) tanning and stretching the fur. 

In the heat of the Summer, residual grease in made Cleo's fur smell a little stale, so I found some scented, shimmery talc/mica body powder deep within the recesses of my hoarded cosmetics and brushed it into the fur with a natural-bristled paintbrush like a dry shampoo to absorb residual oils. I've split the hide so it lies flat, trimmed the edges that never got fully fleshed, made a plan for reshaping the hide from a not-flat, not-square cat shape into a rectangular fur patch, and am currently in the process of  shaving the fur to make it easier to glue together and sew onto a fabric backing to be stuffed.