- If you've ever had a pet pass away, then you know how hard it is to say goodbye.

But it's possible to keep a beloved animal's memory alive thanks to the art of taxidermy.

Let's head to Inverness to meet Allison Doty of MorgueMade.

(playful music) - I'm Allison Doty and I am with MorgueMade Taxidermy.

I am a taxidermist.

So the actual term means movement of skin.

So taxidermy is the art of stuffing animals that have passed away.

I have always been interested in animals, so that was really where it probably started.

But I started following some creators online and I started learning about taxidermy and it was just a done deal from there.

So I started looking for taxidermy schools and I found one that is in Pensacola.

It's called Taxidermy Tech, and that's really a great place to start.

You learn the principles of taxidermy and then you just have to put 'em to work.

(lively music) - Allison teaches taxidermy classes at our sister store in Ybor called Dysfunctional Grace.

We always make sure to carry some of her pieces in our store at all times.

You know what's neat about taxidermy is that it's really a combination of the taxidermist's creativity, which Allison has a ton of, and then also a discipline that is so intricate.

Like you have to really learn how to do this kind of stuff.

And so it's that combination of having this incredible amount of skill so that something looks real and something looks alive, but also the creativity and the ability to give it that fantasy aspect.

(dramatic music) The full process kind of starts with skinning the animal, and then there's flushing, which is like removing all the rest of the tissue and the fat and the membranes, and then they go into a chemical tan.

After that, they get neutralized.

Then it just goes from there.

It gets mounted, it has about two weeks drying time, and then you would do your finishing work and they'd be ready to go.

(lively music) So I get animals kind of from all over.

I pick up a lot of roadkill.

(Allison chuckling) I work with a lot of farms, so they have naturally deceased animals all the time.

I work with a couple zoos.

As for snakes, I work with a venom lab.

So I currently have five freezers right now.

I have a pretty good relationship with my UPS driver to where if he knows it's something frozen, he will just go ahead and put it right into my outdoor freezer.

So we've got some exciting stuff.

So I have some jumbo rats because these were the food that these snakes had eaten when they were alive.

Okay, here we have a monocled cobra.

So this is a savannah monitor.

This guy is a rhino viper.

Couple just regular eastern diamondbacks.

This is a green mamba.

It definitely can still be dangerous working with venomous snakes.

They still produce venom.

I do wear a special type of gloves.

(lively music) (sad music) And I think that the hardest would probably be the pets just because there's a lot of stress that comes along with them and a lot of responsibility.

- He has kind of a funny name.

His name was Beadie Meets.

He was 20 years old.

So we had been together a really long time.

In the past what I've done with my pets is what a lot of people do.

We do cremation but getting to know Allison, I found out that her preserving their skeleton was another option.

And I'm just so pleased that I have started doing that with my pets once they pass.

The skeletonization is, it's a little bit of a more affordable option.

I also really appreciate the artistry of it and just the beauty of the really white bones in a beautiful little glass box.

I also have six cats, so I feel like they might not do so well with their taxidermy brother.

- Preserving your pet is becoming a lot less stigmatized.

You know, it's really no different than wanting to have them cremated.

At some point, nobody considered that a normal thing to have.

And what kind of happens with that is you get ashes on a mantel and you kind of forget about them to where this is where you can still have your pet.

I do only offer sleeping position, which means that the eyes are closed, but you can choose any position that you would want and then they can touch them, they can smell them.

They still have that sense of comfort.

So I would say that most of my clients are just people that really, their pet was a huge part of their life.

They were family truly, and they're not ready to let them go.

And if that brings them comfort, you know, being able to touch their fur or have a bone memorial, you know, I'm happy to help with that.

(lively music) So I recently competed in the National Taxidermist Association competition.

It was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in July of 2023.

I ended up taking second place in the professional division, which was shocking to me.

- Definitely, you know, when I see her at the association or doing the championship, she tends to stand out because there are a lot of men in the industry and I hope to continue to learn more from her about how she doesn't take any crap from anybody and just continues on her path and her journey.

And it's really beautiful to watch and I feel like she's, you know, quite the inspiration in that regard.

So her art to me represents being expressive and not conforming to what the rest of society may find to be acceptable.

- The kind of people that would collect the things that Allison makes are always gonna be people that have a really good sense of humor and they're always gonna be people whose favorite holiday is Halloween.

- Halloween in our house is very fun.

Our house is kind of Halloween all the time.

You know, I drink pumpkin spice coffee all year round and the neighbor kids call it the haunted house on the street.

So it's very fun.

I have found comfort in being able to give pets second life, if that makes sense.

So I think my relationship with death as far as animals go, kind of stands at this point where it's like, I know they can come back.

You know, I can have a part of them back like, this isn't goodbye, this is just see you in a little bit.

(playful music) (lively music) - [Narrator] For more information on Allison's taxidermy services and classes, visit MorgueMade.com.