A friend brought a tanned wolf back from an Alakan trip that does not have the pads on the bottom of his feet. The person he bought it from said he could get pads for it if he wanted. I don't mind challenges and also told him I could alter the form since there is not a lot of options available. He mentioned having it mounted with it jumping maybe over a log. My question is has anyone run in to this before and how do you go about making it look normal without taking them off his Labrador.. Thanks...Dave
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sounds like LOTS of time trying to sew pads back on. Why not talk your friend into a snow scene to hide paws altogether.
You can very easily rebuild the paw pads with Apoxie Sculpt. After a couple hours when it is hardening up, texturize the pads with a wet rag by pressing the rab in to the Apoxie Sculpt. Then paint them as usual. They come out looking better then the real pads and they don't shrink or smell. The Apoxie Sculpt (or other epoxy putty!) will stick on it's own to the form or to the leather around the missing pads, so you don't need to glue it.
You could also make a plaster 'negative' mold of a wolf track (German Shepherd looks just as good!), and then make a 'positive' casting of the track, and then use the plaster pads on your wolf. Just trim them out of the casting, trim off the flashing, glue them in place, and paint and you're done.
It's very simple work, much easier then doing habitat. I charge $20 to do this and I think that's excessive; it takes me about 10 minutes to repair 4 wolf feet with the Apoxie Sculpt.
Replacement wolf feet can be bought for $25-75 each and attached to the pelt if you are not good at making fake pads or if you lack confidence.
The methods above also work on bobcats, badgers, bears, and foxes.