Preserving Pawprints

An impression of your cat's pawprint can easily be made with the following methods. These prints can be made at any time. Many vets are willing to do footprint impressions, too.

• Purchase Sculpey or a similar brand of clay that will harden with drying. Press the into the shape you wish (or cut with a cookie cutter), then press your cat's paw firmly into the clay. You should have several "blanks" ready for your attempts, at least one more than the number of impressions you wish to make. You can put a hole at the top or a hanger in back before it dries if you wish to hang the print. (Figure 1)

• Use an ink pad, food coloring, or paint to "ink" your cat's paw pad. An "ink pad" can be made using lots of paper towels and the food coloring or paint. Press the ink pad to your cat's paw then press the inked paw onto a piece of watercolor paper. Clean your cat's paw thoroughly, especially if you aren't sure you are using a non-toxic medium. The resulting print can be framed with some of your pet's hair. (Figure 2)

• Purchase a commercial paw print kit such as ClayPaws for everything you need. Pet stores and hobby shops often carry these kits, too. Target sometimes carries hand/footprint kits in the baby department.

Fig. 1: Boo's paw in clay

Fig. 2: Sun's watercolor paw print