The moose antlers have been mounted on the garage for more than 40 years. They were from my dad’s first moose hunt in 1980, when Maine started the lottery after decades of prohibiting moose hunting.
I didn’t really appreciate them or their meaning until I started hunting.
I don’t remember my first piece of taxidermy. It might have been my first bear, taken in 2014 during the heated, contentious referendum fight to save our methods of bear hunting. The bear now lies in the form of a rug, 6 feet 4 inches, along the back of the couch in my office.
Since then, I have had the antlers from my first buck mounted along with the first crotch-horn, 6-point and 10-point bucks that I have taken.
In 2023, I shot a beautiful 8-pointer and decided to have a shoulder mount done. It will hang next to the 9-point buck my Dad shot during a fall storm in 2017.
A cabinet that once held china dishes now holds 19 different skulls from 14 different types of animals.
On top of the cabinet is a fawn that I convinced my hunting partner, Staci, to grab for me after she hit it with her car. A quick call to the wardens for a tag and I have a stunning full-bodied fawn mount.
In the same room, six different furs hang along one wall.
It seems like a little much for one woman’s office but each pelt, skull or mount is full of moments, stories and adventures that bring up memories of past experiences. When I started hunting, I never imagined that I would be decorating my house with dead animals but here I am.
In 2021, I was drawn for a moose tag and decided to put my efforts into accomplishing my grand slam. I knew that I would keep something from each of the animals to mark the accomplishment.
Taxidermy is not cheap but good taxidermy is worth every dollar. I mounted the turkey feathers myself. The deer antlers were mounted to match the others.
My moose is a fantastic square; 4 feet wide and 4 feet high. Some day, I will have the proper wall to hang it on.
My bear was the first that I trapped. He was left paw dominant and I had asked the taxidermist to have that paw forward and up so that I could hang a trap on it. He wrote those specifications on the slip that he had me sign along with my deposit.
What I got back was a bear with its right paw forward on a frame that was too small in the head and too large in the shoulders for the size of the animal. I chalked it up to being a part of the overall story of my grand slam, but when I walked out of that taxidermist’s shop, I never went back.
But what do you do with all of the taxidermy?
It’s great to look at it, but I wanted to use it and not have it just collect dust.
Following my successful grand slam, I started giving presentations to local Rotary clubs. I started with my own club in Waterville, and talked about the experience of each hunt and the economic impact it had across Maine.
The information was fine, but people really loved the animals; feeling the difference between bear fur and deer hair. They were able to see the deer skull’s intricate lines where the plates fused together compared to larger plates that push together and create a ridge in the center of a bear’s skull.
We talked about how antlers fall off and regrow while horns continue to grow and do not fall off. I make a point of showing everyone the cable that I used to trap the bear because it is not metal with big teeth.
My traveling taxidermy show is a chance to educate non-hunters while highlighting my hunts and the animals that fill my freezer.
When I started hunting, I would have never imagined that I would have the taxidermy collection that I do, nor would I have seen myself shlepping animal pelts and skulls into office buildings and schools to present about my hunting adventures.
But, I am grateful that I get to do it.
