Top cat

Adam VandenOever was apprehensive and anxious when he entered his work featuring a mountain lion into the Idaho Taxidermy Competition in Boise earlier this month.

“I was terrified that I’d get an honorable mention,” he said.

So the Post Falls man was blown away when he came home with first place in the cat category, first place in habitat, best in category, best habitat, best in state, best predator, best life-size, people’s choice, women’s choice, first place people’s choice and the coveted artisan award.

“I never knew where I stood in my industry,” VandenOever said. “That was the whole point behind this. I wanted to see just how good I was.”

After winning so many awards in his first competition, he’ll be moving into masters, the top level for competing taxidermy artists.

Winning has assured him he’s on the right path and encouraged him to continue following his life’s dream. VandenOever has been fascinated with taxidermy since he was 7 years old.

He started his now successful business, Elusive Creatures Taxidermy, out of his garage about 10 years ago. VandenOever has always been a hunter and had several deer mounted by local taxidermists, each with a range of imperfections. After multiple unsuccessful tries to find the right artist, he decided to mount his own catches. He enrolled in a six-week taxidermy course in Montana and started mounting his own animals, friends' animals and selling mounts.

"I’ll never put anything out of my shop that I wouldn’t want on my wall," he said. "I know it sounds cheesy, but to me, it isn’t just throwing the skin on a form and sending it home. I want every mount to be bringing the animal back to life, essentially."

VandenOever has a keen eye for detail and he can quickly discern an imperfection. He’s also studious, an animal lover and a perfectionist with his art. With each piece, he tries to honor the life of the animal and pay respect. He’s constantly trying to improve his skills, and that dedication, obsession and passion showed in his award-winning mount.

After winning so many categories with his cat, VandenOever is confident that mounting cats is one of his strengths, and he loves working on them. The judges and other masters in Boise were enthralled by Conifer, what he named the mountain lion he killed with an arrow, mounted and entered into the competition.

“I haven’t seen a cat this good in years,” mammal judge Robert Majors told VandenOever during the competition.

Even though VandenOever has only mounted about 10 cats, he has a knack for it that he is noticing is rare in the industry, he said. Specializing in cats with his business will fill a demand for skilled cat taxidermists, and also allow him to focus more on what he loves in his work. He can turn away more deer and spend time and effort on quality over quantity.

When he started, VandenOever could mount up to two deer a month in his garage, while working construction during the day. That number grew over his first five years, until he was able to build the shop where his business is now based, quit his day job and double his production to mount roughly 60 deer a year and 40 other animals.

VandenOever would like to charge more for his cats so he can spend more time on them. More time would allow him to make his own plaster casts of heads, or make his own eyes to capture the essence of each cat.

He won’t do birds or fish because he doesn’t feel he can do them justice, but he does mount moose, mountain goats, bears, lynxes, leopards and other mammals.

VandenOever also enjoys doing remounts, or perfecting mounts. He’s working on a leopard that appears to be squinting into the sun. And he’ll remount two elk with wide-eyed stares and rough noses.

He often has customers return to have him remount other animals.

“Dude, I can’t have these other deer on the wall now that I have yours up there,” one customer told VandenOever when he brought in three items for remount.

VandenOever's perfectionism comes from his mother, Barb Moyer. At least that's what she thinks. And she said he gets his ingenuity from his father.

“He’s dedicated and follows through with absolutely everything,” Moyer added. “And he’s an achiever in everything he does.”

She wasn’t surprised to see him excel in the state competition, and she thinks he’ll continue to do well at masters, national and world competitions.

“He loves it,” Moyer said. “It’s his calling.”