Adventures in Taxidermy

Don't worry, there are no graphic or bloody photos in this post!

As you guys know I have a little collection of vintage taxidermy here at camp Say It Ain't So. I just love it! I think it reminds me of campy dioramas at the local science museum when I was a kid. I had toyed with the idea of taking a taxidermy class at my local oddities shop, but the class I was signed up for got cancelled. My best friend Crystal, and my new friend Ashley both took classes though. Ashley got some rats that died from a woman who sells feeders to feed snakes and offered to bring them over so they could teach me how to do it. Here are some notes from my foray into taxidermy. I know most people aren't into this stuff, so it won't hurt my feelings if you skip this post. 

The rats were frozen and were pretty pee covered so first order of business was to wash and dry them. I  thought this might make me sad because I used to have pet rats and loved them but it really wasn't. These guys were destined for pet food, and once they died they would have been thrown away. Look at how cute mine is!

 Crystal got a black one.

 Ashely's was the cutest! This was the first time we've hung out in person, which might seem a little weird. Haha! But we met on instagram because of the taxidermy classes!

 Ok, so the first order of business is to separate the skin from the body. It took a REALLY long time for us to get through it. Hours and hours. I'm pretty squeamish and had to take a few breaks and go outside but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting it done. I'm not going to lie, it was really gruesome. I actually had nightmares because of it. I'm not going to go into the process, but if you are interested, we used this website for tips, along with what they learned in the classes. I'm not going to link the classes they took because the instructor is apparently pretty awful, but I've heard great things about Afterlife Anatomy, who also travels around teaching classes!

 You also have to create a little false body to go inside the rat. The eyes are just regular black beads. It's weird how realistic they look once they are in the skin.

 Here we are working hard! As you can see it is now dark! We worked from about 4 until almost midnight! With a little break for tacos.

Ashely demonstrating how were were all feeling about 6 hours in. Haha. So over it. But wanted to finish! Look at how cute her rat looks!

 Really, the worst part was all the skinning. I gave up once we got to the head and Ashley finished it for me. Bless her. Stuffing it and posing it wasn't bad at all. 

You wire the arms and legs into place, and try to make the tail look ok. I'm not sure how well I did that part, we'll see.

 Here is my little gal all done. She looks ok for my first (and probably only) try I think. We'll see how sh looks in a few weeks. Crystal took mine home so it could cure in her basement, away from curious cats.

All in all it was an interesting experience and I'm glad I did it. I know it seems weird for a vegan, but I really like taxidermy and feel like it honors the animal in a way. Do I expect everyone to agree with me? No. But that's ok. I hope you found it interesting at least!