For many of us, the loss of a pet is our first experience with death, and incidentally our first taste of the sadness and pain that accompanies the joy of loving another living creature.
Throughout such terrible times, one of the hardest things to think about is your pet's final resting place. It's never an easy decision -- and while you're grieving it certainly isn't fun. While traditional backyard burials were once a default choice, the popularity of pet cremation services has soared, as have the industries of more alternative options such as pet cemeteries.
For some pet owners the idea of never seeing their furbaby again is too much to bear, and the conventional taxidermy industry has certainly risen to the challenge. However a more space-age option is becoming popular: freeze-dried taxidermy.
While at first thought, the term "freeze-dried" seems more suited to astronaut ice cream, pet treats and the berries found in your morning cereal, it actually does an amazing job on animal remains.
Also known as lypholisation, freeze-drying involves placing the object into a vacuum and freezing it, before extracting all the moisture straight from solid ice into vapour form, thus skipping the liquid phase. Since the ice does not liquefy, as would occur under normal drying conditions, the incidence of structural changes and shrinking of the object in question is massively reduced.
