Hi, I’m Emily, a non-traditional taxidermist in Southwest Michigan. My story starts as a young girl with a ton of family members, including parents, grandparents, great grand parents, and even great great grand parents! I came into this world with a ton of support and love waiting for me, but with that also comes a lot of loss through the years. My mother was a caregiver, so I spent a lot of time as a child in nursing homes and hospitals while she took care of our family. Death was explained to me for the first time at the young age of 3, but was never expressed in a way that made me view it negatively. It was simply a part of life. You cannot have life without death… 

In my late teens and early twenties, I worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant in rehab facilities, nursing homes, and memory care. I became the go-to person when I was on shift for post-mortem care. This means I was getting very recently deceased, elderly patients cleaned up and presentable for their loved ones to come in and view them one last time before they were taken to a funeral home. The first time I did post-mortem care, the wife of the deceased held onto me tightly and we cried together as she thanked me over and over for making him look so peaceful. It sparked a passion in me that never went away. 

Covid hit our world full force, and took me out of my role as a CNA entirely. I took this time to work on one of my hobbies, non-traditional taxidermy. Once things calmed down in a year or two, though, I ended up applying to a funeral home. For a handful of months, I was transporting the deceased, helping prepare for open casket viewings, assisting with holding funerals and doing general upkeep on the funeral home itself. Unfortunately, it turns out the funeral industry is quite competitive, which didn't sit right with me. I ended up leaving and going into inpatient psychiatric care as an assistant.

I spent 5 years doing inpatient psych before my husband, Travis, voiced his concerns about my safety. It was true, this was not a safe job at all, and I had already been put in some very bad situations that could have compromised my health. “Why don’t you just put in your two weeks and focus on your taxidermy? It seems to make you happier, and surely you could make some sort of business out of it?” 

So, I got bold and did just that. I started cleaning and painting wild animal skulls full time. Then I started making keychains out of bone, necklaces, and earrings, and learning how to dry preserve remains, then I learned about wet specimens, and started learning how to tan pelts. I was doing vendor events and teaching people how to do what I do.

But then, I got a very distressed phone call… 

My close friend's cat had just died, right in her arms. It was unexpected, and traumatic for her. She tried everything she could to bring him back, but he was gone. She called and asked me to take him and preserve his skeletal remains. Without a second thought, I dropped everything and went to retrieve him. After the process, and being able to present to her a new form of her beloved companion, that same spark came back to me that I had years ago while being embraced by the grieving widow, her thanking me over and over. She was so relieved to have her cat back in his new form, and I felt like I had brought comfort to her that may not have been possible otherwise. I knew then that this was my passion.