July 2026 - Our Furry Friends
Our challenge for July is to send in a picture of your real pet with your miniatures or your use of animals in a scene.
We’d love for you to participate! Simply complete and submit the form below. You may submit up to two photos. Have more images you’d like to share? Feel free to combine them into a collage. Please feature no more than two projects across your photos or collages.
Once we receive your submission, we’ll share your photos below. And don’t forget to include your mailing address! At the end of the monthly challenge, you’ll receive a small thank-you gift as our way of saying thanks for participating.
The challenge example comes from Andi Vinciquerra who writes:
Stevie and Ziggy have never met a miniature they didn't think was made especially for them. As kittens, they claimed the dollhouse attic as their personal penthouse, and years later Ziggy can still be found investigating tiny worlds, convinced there must be secrets hidden inside. Like most bad cats, they've toppled more than a few carefully arranged treasures, but they've also brought endless wonder and laughter to my work.
Before the girls came along, my beloved Cheech was my faithful shop assistant. She supervised countless projects, inspected every box that entered the studio, and made sure no creative endeavor went unaccompanied. I like to think Stevie and Ziggy are carrying on her traditions... though with considerably more chaos.
Our pets fill our homes with whimsy and wonder, reminding us to stay curious and delight in the smallest details. After all, what is a magical miniature world without a furry companion nearby, ready to add a little fur and a lot of chaos?
From Carol Johnson:
Snickers is wonderful company while I work on miniatures.
From Jackie Nelson:
Here is my July Challenge picture of my Music Room room box: Max, the cat, is "helping" to sort the sheet music in the Music Room.
From Marie Mullaney:
1st pic - Luna, my fluffy quality control specialist
2nd pic - We had to add a mini version of our Luna since she's heavily used involved in my projects
From Susan Buffaloe:
Pax... Dollhouse Destroyer. He causes an earthquake every so often in the miniature neighborhood.
From Joyce Salisbury:
This is Sami checking out her new house to see how it fits. In the second one, she is keeping my cross-stitch rug warm. I can't keep her out of my little projects..
From Kathleen Doughty:
My cat Bella loves to look at me through the windows of my farmhouse when I am working on it. If you look closely, there is a miniature version of her on the kitchen floor. She would eventually scoot it out and onto the floor. Ha Ha
From Rosemarie Sandground:
This is King Bumi and Beastie at 6 months old viewing their kingdom from upon high. Our son found them on a cold night with no mother insight. They were supposed to go to the shelter the next day but now they are family.
From Martha Bates:
Tuffy is examining my newly arrived 1:24th scale Colombo house! I was the lucky winner of a raffle by the North Carolina Museum of Dolls, Toys and Miniatures. Debbie Colombo donated the house, therefore I named it the Colombo House!
From Sara Cook:
Mermaid fortune teller's tent in a coral reef, 1/2" scale. The mercat is based on my silly orange cat, Robyn. The glowing cauldrons are powered by induction coils hidden under the floor, no wires!
From Lynn Miller:
My sweet Birman cat, Ginny, was always a little jealous of the time I spent on minis. Here she is, rolling on her back, waiting for me to leave the room so she can jump up on the desk and see if there is something she can knock on the floor.
From Trish Froehlich:
The little Papillon in her basket is in memory of my Bebe - I hand-painted the statue so it was an exact replica of her keeping me company in my reading nook.
From Jane Holbrook:
My cousin’s little dachshund, Tuddley, has come for a visit. But watch out! He does not like cats!
The little beagle is our dog, Sparky. She always seems to find out where the food is in hopes there might be a handout!
From Angie Phillips:
Not exactly furry friends, being more Beatrix Potter stand-on-their-own creations. These are numbers 2 and 4 of my “Bunnies at Versailles” series.
Benjamin Bunny and Flopsy Meet At Versailles. Made of Fimo, dressed and posed beside a garden bench made of aluminum flashing with plastic irises.
From Dee Cirilli:
…and the Winner is! Was to be a dog show but I think the dogs just want to play! I got the gazebo from a friend , found the dogs at a flea market, and various other shows. Couldn’t resist making flower pots and putting all the dogs together. Enjoy!
From Suzanne Spooner-Munch:
Purrs ‘N Paws The “Purrs ‘N Paws” pet shop began with the discovery of wee animal crates, food bowls, pet carriers and pets (!) in a Dollar Tree toy aisle. Then the shop emerged - with reptiles, tiny mice, frogs and other amphibians, plus everything needed for their care: collars, leashes, magazines and pet food of all kinds…oh, beds, chew toys (masking tape) and scratching posts too. The shop itself is an inverted potato bin with a magnetic front added! A fun project 😀
From Carol Shea:
This container was meant for a credit card gift giver but I saw a wild animal Christmas scene.
From Margaret Gordus:
Hunting cabin made for my son who loves hunting with his favorite labrador dog. The antelope was made from a picture of my husband's antelope trophy by Maxine Smith. The horse stable was for my daughter who owned a racehorse and was in the winner's circle twice. She had been riding from age of 6.
From Julie Stuckmeyer:
Luna doesn't like my minis per se, but she absolutely loves being on my lap (or behind me on the chair) when I'm trying to work on minis!
From Fern Rouleau:
Here is my scene: It is the Rainbow Bridge with all my dogs that I lost and my deceased daughter also.
From Starcia Conville:
First picture is Felicity peeking her head up from the first floor checking to see if I am working and how the job is going. The second is her taking a nap in a newly carpeted bedroom. Just testing it out!
From Ellen Scofield:
The first photo is a quarter scale scene. An Irish pub with a sweet old gent and his faithful dog.
The second is a one inch scale scene. The cat lady and all her cats.
From Barb Antol:
This is a 1:12 scale roombox I created as a tribute to all the special kitties who shared in our lives. The room isn’t an exact replica of our home, but various furnishings are similar and the view out the French Door is a photo of our backyard. There are 11 kitties in total: 10 have lived here with us over the years (2 still do). One was a very special feral friend from the shelter where I volunteer. The kitty figures were all hand crafted by Sue Veeder. We’ve also had custom portraits of our kitties done by artist Sharon Challand. I made tiny copies of their portraits for the walls of the roombox. The figures are all posed in ways to evoke special memories of each cat. Many have a special little toy or treat that was/is a favorite of the real cat. This is one of my all-time favorite mini projects since it brings back such treasured memories of our beloved fur babies.
From Elizabeth Lubera:
For this month’s Furry Friends challenge, I am posting two animals that are inspired by past family pets.
In the first photo we see a small cat curled up in the home’s kitchen garden. Created on commission from miniaturist Jan Yinger, she reminds me of a cat named Imelda that I once owned as a child.
In the second photo we see a statue made in memory of my grandchildren’s two beloved bunnies, Gus and Sam. The artwork was made by the nationally-known sculptor, Janice Trimpe, who was excited to try (for the first and only time!) working in miniature scale. While the sculptor’s large-scale works are in bronze, this small-scale work was done in clay, painted to look like metal.
From Tammy Witthaus:
After we lost one of our dogs, I decided to create a Rainbow Bridge scene and put all of our animals that had passed over and have kept up with it. I have found that I can look at it and it makes me smile rather than being sad.
The scene is in a glass baseball case, and it has pictures of some of them when they were alive on the outside. The bridge also lights up on their side of the bridge with an LED but difficult to take a picture with it.
2nd picture is with the glass off of it but still kind of difficult to see the cats who are over by the flowers/plants in the right back corner.
Cassie (lab), Sam (beagle), Cleo (cat), Princess (cat), Abby (lab), Hannah (lab), and Ellie Mae (black lab).
From Vicky Brandt:
Coco and Jojo are supposed to be helping Santa with his list, but instead, are feeding hungry reindeer!
From Vicki Scidmore:
I no longer have furry friends around the house but I wish I had a feathered friend like Hedwig to deliver messages for me!
From Faun Guarino:
We adopted Roxy, a Maine Coon, 3 months before this picture was taken (2023). I was whitewashing the walls of my Tudor house (purchased in 1986 in Covent Garden in London) when Roxy decided to personally inspect my work up close! Luckily, the paint remained inside. (Unfortunately, the shot of her climbing the interior stairs is the one that got away!)
From Peggy McLoughlin:
My niece and I have birthdays on 6/26 and 6/27 and, as we both have artistic hobbies, we exchange gifts by mail. When I attended my first NAME convention back in 2016 in Seattle (which is where she lives), I was able to use the great room box I acquired for the “Tucker in Seattle” piece I later sent to her.
Last week Hannah received “Tucker in his Studio” which features her oversized furry friend which I had to order last minute because my granddaughter fell in love with the original (OG) I planned on including.
I didn’t glue him in. She was thrilled with her gift , however, and says she will glue the older, chunkier Tucker into the scene because he is the right scale after all🤣
From Marilyn Ferkinhoff:
This is my crazy cat lady room box. It all started with the crazy cat lady figure I bought during covid. I love cats so it was easy to find everything to fill it from my collection.
From Suzie Aguilar:
I call my sister the Crazy Cat Lady because she has so many cats. I made this vignette of her living room and craft room as a gift for her. (She doesn’t really allow the cats in her craft room but it made the scene more fun.)
From Suzanne Larson-Tamburo :
This was a quarter scale kit we had done called “Choices”. I had made it up as Halloween and was setting it up to take pictures when our cat, Blacky, decided to pose next to it.
From Catherine Hawkins :
48 cats (approximately) and one tolerant dog. Some cats are by artists Jackie Transue, Karl Blindheim, Amanda Skinner, Jan Yinger, Sue Veeder, and Andee Marshall.
Some cats are resin imports. Some are metal miniatures I painted --- one is the black Egyptian cat on pedestal, another is the cat with yarn ball.
I made all the cat furniture from cardboard, matboard, toilet paper tubes, basswood, brown paper, twigs, and felt. The litter box is two jelly containers glued together.
All of the books, magazines, and wall posters were printed from my inkjet printer, as was the cat wallpaper, a piece of gift wrap which I scanned, pieced together, and printed.
"Habitat for Felinity" was featured in the 2012 February issue of Miniature Collector magazine in their article about cats in miniature.
From Kristen Enzinger :
I designed and built this stable years ago. Replicas of my real horses are in it, the chestnut by Denise Pritchett and the Appaloosa by me. Wee friends club of Annapolis also built and furnished one. We sold raffle tickets for it, and made $1200 which went to Md. therapeutic riding. The winner of the raffle was Elizabeth Mahoney, one of the founding members of NAME! She only bought one ticket!
From Pamela Junk :
Starting out as a kitten, Cookie, our Calico cat, was always trying to help me work on my daughter's dollhouse.
From Cheryl Polito:
Here is all my animals on the farm. This was my camp make a mini from a few years ago.
From Sharon Beall:
My little rescue, Willow Pearl, may not have been furry on the outside, but her underside was so soft and fluffy and she loved to have her tummy rubbed. She liked to help me “decorate”. (Usually, if I thought something should be standing straight up, Willow thought it should be laying down!)
Thank you for indulging me. I miss this girl so much!
