Custom pet
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Dogs and cats are most of what we make, and every breed asks for something different once you shrink it down to three inches. Here's what our artisans are actually looking at when your photos come in.

Coat length decides the whole approach. A Golden Retriever's feathering and a Border Collie's chest ruff have to read as fur without turning into fuzz, so they are modeled as shape and shadow rather than strand by strand. Short-coated dogs go the other way. On a Labrador or a Beagle, the likeness comes down to head shape and to landing the markings in exactly the right spot, which is why the side photo matters as much as the straight-on one. Our photo guide covers the angles that make this easy.

Then there are ears, which carry most of the personality. A French Bulldog's bat ears and a Corgi's big upright ears hold up beautifully at this scale. A Dachshund's long soft ones get thinned a little so they don't swallow the face. A German Shepherd needs tall alert ears plus a black saddle painted over tan, and a Husky is really a paint job — that facial mask has to land evenly or the whole face reads wrong. A Shiba Inu comes down to the curled tail and the white on the cheeks, and a Chihuahua is mostly ears and eyes on a tiny frame, which is a gift when you're designing a chibi.

Haircuts are a whole thing on their own. A Poodle or a Goldendoodle can look like a different dog before and after the groomer, so tell us which version you want: shaggy, or fresh out of the chair. An Australian Shepherd's merle gets painted patch by patch from your photos, because no two merle coats fall the same way and there's no template for it.

Mixed breeds and rescues are as welcome here as any pedigree, and you don't need to know what yours is. If all you know is "some kind of shepherd mix, we think," put that in the notes and let the photos do the rest.

With cats it's rarely about breed. Most cats are house cats with no papers to their name, so we work from markings instead. On tuxedo cats everything depends on where the white stops: the bib, the chin, how far up the socks go. Orange tabbies need the stripe direction and the M on the forehead, or they just look orange. No two calicos have the same pattern, so yours gets matched to your photos rather than guessed at. Black cats are the hardest to photograph and the easiest to ruin — painted flat black, the face disappears — so they're built up with warm browns and a soft sheen that keeps the eyes and nose readable under a lamp. And a Maine Coon is the one cat where size is the point: ear tufts, ruff, that heavy tail.

If your pet isn't a dog or a cat — a rabbit, a bird, a hamster, the occasional lizard — you order exactly the way everyone else does: pick Other for the species when you start, and tell us what they are in the notes. A real person looks at your photos first and tells you straight whether we can do them justice, and you see a color 3D preview before anything is printed — cancel for a full refund any time before you approve your preview. We only make pets, never people.

• 2.4 in — taller than a golf ball, shorter than a coffee mug. It fits a desk corner, a monitor stand, a nightstand, or the shelf above the coffee maker.
• 3.1 in — just under the height of a standard coffee mug. It holds more painted detail: collars, tags, the patch over one eye. It's also the better pick when the figurine is a gift and you want it noticed on the shelf.

Both sizes stand on their own base, so there's nothing to prop up or mount. If you'd rather carry your dog or cat around than display them, the same pet can be made as a custom pet keychain from your photo.

Birthdays and adoption anniversaries are the everyday reasons, along with the first months with a new puppy or kitten, when you want to hold on to that version of them. Whatever the occasion, it's worth working backward from the date: your color 3D preview arrives 3–5 days after you order, and your piece reaches your door about 4 weeks after you approve it — roughly 2 weeks of crafting plus about 15 days of tracked shipping. Mother's Day and Father's Day are made for the dog moms and dog dads who are impossible to shop for. Weddings, too — if the dog can't come to the reception, here's how a figure for the cake table works.

Some are memorials. If the dog or cat in your photos has passed, choose “Pet has passed away” when we ask their age — that tells us to take extra care — and add anything you want us to get right in the notes. Older photos usually work. A real person reviews your photos first — if one is too blurry, we'll let you know before anything is made. And if you need more time with your color 3D preview, just reply and say so — we'll wait.