Tag: taxidermy

Beth Johnson believes that every life has a story. Among the nails, pins, knives, and other tools scattered about her workbench lies the colorful, limp-necked carcass of a parrot. Johnson doesn’t know the bird’s name, but she knows that it was a beloved pet for 22 years, and the bereaved owner wants Johnson to give the animal in death what it rarely took in life—flight.

I’m fond of telling people that my friend Lary has taxidermied bums in his basement, but that is an exaggeration. There is just the one taxidermied cat, and it isn’t so much taxidermied as simply mummified—and even that is not a proven fact, but I don’t see how the case could be otherwise.