How To Freeze Dry Simple Things?

I may have an opportunity to get an inexpensive freeze dryer, basically an old one that was good quality but might need some repairs. My machinest friend is confident he can make it run. I would like to use it in part for drying some simple taxidermy type items like animal feet which I get as scrap from hunters, for instance coyote, fox, turtle, deer etc. I might also want to try some mice as get caught in traps, fall in my friends swimming pool, or that the cat drags in, or maybe lizards etc. Can someone give me an idea about what kind of prep or processes I would need to do? Can I just stick the pieces in and let them rip or is there more to it? These would not be for competition or any such, does not need be fancy, but fur needs to stay on decently and rot needs to not happen. Also would like the things to stay basically in the pose I lay them in, like in the case of raccoon feet, I want the toes to lay out straight, not curl up into a fist. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

 

Sounds good, that's what it seemed like but I wanted to check. My repair guy has a lot of experience in HVAC, refrigeration, and machine repair in general, he is a machine guru, so that part should be fine, thank you!