An Argentinian woman found it so hard to part with her recently deceased pet cat that she had its body stuffed by a taxidermist just so she could keep carrying it with her everywhere she goes.
Daniela Cardone and her stuffed cat Matute shot to fame a few days ago, when she posted some pictures of their trip to Lujan city, in the Buenos Aires province, on Instagram. Speaking to reporters, the former model said she simply couldn’t bear to part with Matute after he died around a month ago, so she sought out someone to help her preserve his body. She strongly believed that his soul was still around her, and it didn’t make sense for her to dispose of his body.
So she approached taxidermist Hannibal Principiano, who spent 40 days embalming Matute’s remains, using the cat’s photographs for reference. And he did a fantastic job. The stuffed cat is incredibly lifelike making it very difficult to tell it apart from a real life feline just by looking at the pictures. Right from his bright blue eyes to his grumpy expression, Matute looks very much like his former living self, so much so that when Cardone saw him for the first time last week, she knew instantly that she’d done the right thing.
“When I saw him, I was shocked and I cried,” she said. “It was so great to have him with me again. He has the same hairs, now I know he is always close. I was really sad, but now I am happy. I have five more cats, but Matute was the leader and we were without our lord.”
Having pets preserved through taxidermy certainly isn’t new, but most people think Cardone’s obsession with her cat and the fact she carries its stuffed body with her is rather creepy. “Whoaa, that’s scary,” one person commented on Instagram, while another said “I always thought she was screwed up in the head and now I know for sure.”
Daniela and Matute when the cat was still alive
However, the former model seems unaffected by the wave of criticism on social media, and continues to declare her love for Matute. “A pet is the most sacred thing there is, the accept you as you are,” she said.
Photo: Daniela Cardone/Instagram
