NORWAY – Having the same idea at the same time led three long-time friends to jointly create the Heads or Tails taxidermy shop.

“We were sitting on our deck in Hartford and in the evening it just came to everyone one of us at the same time,” said Tammy Boutot, co-owner of the shop along with her husband, Dave, and Joseph Rezendes. “We’re on a walk of faith.”

The Boutots and their son Adam, are new to the taxidermy business. They already own a flooring business, which will stay open.

Rezendes has been a taxidermist for 10 years and owns a taxidermist business in Ledyard, Conn., also named Heads or Tails.

The friends, who’ve known each other for 20 years, rented a first floor space in the Opera Building in Norway in October. They’ve been renovating it as time allows. They put in new flooring, rebuilt a wall, installed sinks, a bench and lighting.

On Monday, they were painting.

Rezendes said the shop will have five sections: a showroom, a mounting room, a woodworking shop, a tanning room and special, dust-free painting booth.

He said all tanning will be done on the premises in Norway, which speeds completion of the product compared with work by taxidermists who have to ship hides out.

Rezendes said the idea of taxidermy is to mount something as close to lifelike as possible.

“Symmetry is important,” he said.

He said Heads or Tails will also provide unique presentations of fish, fowl or animal. He noted that he has built a coffee table around a stuffed fish.

“You need to know what you’re looking at in the wild,” Rezendes said. “Habitats have to be realistic. You want to put some life in what you do; you just don’t want it standing straight.”

Rezendes had been working for General Dynamics for 15 years when he was injured on the job. He had to change careers and decided to go to the American School of Taxidermy in Wisconsin.

Rezendes said Heads or Tails will be a full service shop able to mount fish, birds and deer.

The grand opening is expected to be at the end of January.