Cuddle Clones – Plush Copies of Your Favorite Pets
Every time I see this stuffed toy made by Cuddle clones I forget twice. This is an exact replica of my dead dog. Aside from the creepy factor, this bespoke scarecrow healed my family and helped keep the memory of our beloved pet more vibrant and tangible.
Our friends at Gizmodo mentioned Cuddle Clones early last year and when I read about them I thought these stuffed toys were a brilliant idea. You upload photos of your pet, tweak a few parameters, and add notes about the distinguishing features.
The company then creates a plush replica that is delivered to your door in about two months. This can be a dog, cat, horse, guinea pig, rabbit, or “other” animal, including pigs, ferrets, and even cows. For small animals they are about life size, but larger animals range in length from 13 to 20 inches. This is your pet’s “mini-me”! However, it is expensive – from $ 179 to $ 249, depending on the weight of your pet. I mean, it’s a stuffed – and not even a life-size stuffed Pegasus that you could ride .
I didn’t think about Cuddle Clones again until one morning I discovered that my daughter was crying uncontrollably, crying over her dog, her friend. Buckley was almost 11 years old when he died, but she was only about four years old when he passed away. Several years have passed since he died, and my daughter was still going through it hard. She wrote stories about him being a ghost dog that stalked her everywhere and kept her company at school. Worse, her allergist told us that she should never have another dog because she has asthma and her blood tests showed a serious dog allergy. Although the way she felt and tried to cope was completely natural , it intensified my pain and my husband’s pain. He was our first big baby, a gentle giant (this is his photo and the Hug Clone in the title image above).
I showed her the Cuddle Clones website and made a deal with her: we will pay half if she saves and pays the other half. I was trying to gauge her real interest in this stuffed animal clone, rather than offering her little consolation to shrug off her grief over a real pet. She immediately raided her piggy bank, and we went online to place an order.
During the ordering process, you select the breed of your pet (in the drop-down list you can choose from Affenpinscher to Yorkshire Terrier or other / mixed), enter its weight, upload photos and choose customization options, such as whether you want the stuffed animal to stand. sitting or lying down. You can also choose the ear position and eye color for the left and right side, tail position and mouth options (no tongue, closed mouth with tongue, open mouth with tongue).
The form offers instructions for adding photos. We only sent a photo of the front and a photo of the side.
There are three fields where you can explain up to three physical characteristics you want to point to, and upload additional photographs to illustrate them.
The company says it takes about 2 months to process typical orders, while mine takes 5 months from order date to delivery. This was not really a surprise as it was forever for the kid as their online order form lists an estimated delivery date based on when you order. At the time of this writing, it is April 2016 if you place an order in February.
It was worth the wait. I expected the scarecrow to look like Buckley, but I never imagined it would look so much like him. It’s so realistic that when I opened the box and saw it for the first time, I almost burst into tears. I couldn’t stop looking at him during the day. Our dog had a very distinctive appearance with stripes of gray, white, black and brown on the coat. We would not buy a stuffed animal in the store that looked exactly like him. The Cuddle Clones version, on the other hand, impresses with its attention to detail and precision. It’s as if the company has carefully embroidered each piece of fur (not really fur, but synthetic fabrics such as acrylic and polyester) to match our dog’s pattern. The company says they also use a water-based airbrushing technique for specific color effects. I would love to have his eyes lighter in color to match our dog’s amber eyes, but other than that, the stuffed animal captures his essence.
And the thing is huge. Its length from forelegs to tail is nearly three feet – about the size of our dog when it was about a year old. The Cuddle Clones FAQ says that dogs and cats are between 13 and 17 inches, so I think we’re in luck. It doesn’t look like your typical floppy disk toy. It is stronger and retains its shape when you pick it up and move it. This is a tougher stuffed animal than you might be used to – more like a foam covered in soft “fur” than a soft pet. You also can’t just throw it in the washing machine, it needs to be dry-cleaned or spot-cleaned.
Sometimes the daughter lies on it like on a pillow (like with our dog). Sometimes she uses it as a tablet stand:
Mostly she is just delighted with her purchase. While a stuffed animal cannot replace a real pet, just as a doll or a photograph cannot replace a human being, it is like a pet to her. One of the first things she said when she gave the plush toy: “Buckley Jr. is the best present in the world, because I always have it and he will never die.”
I confess that the toy still scares me sometimes. It’s not as creepy as, say, making a dead pet taxidermis, but for the first couple of weeks I had to hide it to avoid the shock of my old dog lying on the couch, staring at me and motionless. I am still being tricked into thinking it’s him. At the same time, this soft toy makes me remember our old dog with great fondness, and the joy this toy brings to my daughter is priceless. Even though the Cuddle Clones are cuddly toys, I don’t think they are just for kids either. Anyone who has lost a loved one knows what it is like to lose a family member.
You can see other examples of Cuddle Clones in their photo gallery , but here are a couple more:
If you are not happy with your Cuddle Clone, you can return it within 30 days of delivery and ask to be redesigned at no additional cost, or request a refund minus a $ 50 customization fee. The company donates a portion of each purchase to pet-related causes, such as the Bialy’s Wellness Foundation , which helps animals with special needs, and Florida-based Friends for Animals Sanctuary .
Cuddle clones may not be for everyone and this is a significant purchase, but if you have a unique looking pet, you might have a one-of-a-kind stuffed toy.