Project Description
2020
I started working on this illustration back in April when I got my hands on ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’. I just had to illustrate my fur kids in a style inspired by the game.
Kēki passed away in February marking the end of an era for me as now all of my ferret children have crossed the rainbow bridge… I really struggle with their deaths, I miss them a lot and I cry a lot. All the ferrets were thieves, they stole from us, they stole from each other and they each stole a piece of my heart. They were all extremely friendly, gentle and very loving, just so perfect. I wanted to share some significant details about this piece and my babies. From left to right we have Pabu, Kēki, Choco (who is still with us), Momo and Niku. The ferrets loved to be outside and going for walks (Momo usually just preferred to be carried lol). Choco our cat is an indoor kitty, but he likes the thought of being outside and is still pretty skittish on a harness unless hes relaxing on the patio. They all had colors assigned to them through their collars that they never really wore. Pabu was my cuddly gentle (and pretty lazy) giant who passed away in 2015, his color was purple and he even had a purple bow tie for dapper photo shoots (that he would leave on for like a minute). One of my favorite photo sets of him was taken with pink roses, hence all the flowers. Pabu had the most drastic coat change out of all the noodles. Kēki was our feisty deaf angel who was with us the longest, her color was pink and she did in fact own that sweater and it became an item that was very special. She was a very independent young lady and became a huge people snuggler when the others passed away. Her and Momo both were the type of ferret that would search us out for a good snuggle. She was also a moth killer, so I surrounded her by butterflies (that she would probably also kill if she could catch em). Choco the tuxedo cat is still with us and he’s pictured all grumpy like because well, he was a jerk to the ferrets and we had to keep them separated. His color is yellow and he absolutely loves to wear pet clothes, ties, bow ties, collars, harnesses, sweaters you name it. He is a very affectionate and well behaved young man except for when it came to the ferrets. He’s also extremely chatty and talks to us all day long, it’s very cute. Momo was our first ferret and her and Niku both passed away in 2017. Momo was the one that started it all. Her color was red (which was passed to her from my childhood cat) and she was our super smart athlete (stars), she did so many tricks and climbed up everything in the house. I also gave her the animal crossing band-aid because she actually had an abscess removed from that side of her face. Niku was my little wolverine, when he heard a squeaker it was game over until he “killed” whatever was making that noise (music notes). All the ferrets (except Kēki obviously) would come running at the sound of a squeaker, but none of them were as intense as our Niku. He learnt a couple tricks from Momo and he preferred to cuddle the other ferrets. One of his favorite toys was a hedgehog (hence Mabel on his shirt). He was also our little snowbunny, oh my gosh did he love the snow. Niku would usually pair off with Momo, and Pabu with Kēki. Ferrets are the most amazing animals and any time I do art of my babies it is incredibly special to me and I’m very happy with how this turned out, its overwhelming trying to do them justice. I could honestly go on and on about each ferret and how perfect they were, how distinct each of their personalities were, their likes and dislikes, their favorite toys and favorite items to steal and stash etcetera. Writing this was extremely hard because I didn’t want to leave anything out, but I know I can’t fit everything in that would be an entire novel, this post does not do them justice at all, but it helps explain some choices I made for the illustration. I documented their lives at theferrets.ca if you’re interested and one day I want to write a children’s book about them. I love all my fur kids so much and it is a blessing to be able to honor the ferrets with my artwork <3