Come up and taxiderm me some time

I took a taxidermy class.

You’d think I might have been able to find one closer to home, being hunting & fishing country up here in the wooly wilds. Where the general store doubles as deer weigh-station, and moose permits are doled out like winning lotto tickets, dear & coveted.

Though, like the legend about more Jews living in New York City than in Israel, there was at least one more taxidermy class in Brooklyn than in my entire ungulate-culling state. Last week, anyway. Probably due to all the local instructors being out hunting.

So I hauled tire down the interstate to the home of Morbid Anatomy and snagged a coveted spot in their semi-regular Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy class.

I wish I could have documented more, but for much of the time my hands were not fit for photography, as you can imagine. Still, I wanted to have a record of the process, not just what ended up glued to a stand, so I did what I could.

First, you remove most of the fleshy bits.

Mouse skinned, front

Skinned, from the side

Next, the immersive bath of borax and salt.

Bath of borax

And finally, the mouse emerges from the spa, gathers props, poses on a wooden stand, and declares…

I'm ready for my close-up now, Mr. DeMille.