I like ‘em naked. Some like ‘em hairy. I guess it’s just personal preference really but some animals are just special enough that they need to be hung on the wall to keep forever.

If you’ve ever been into Oley’s you will see a growing collection of taxidermy. Most of it we don’t know the history of and there is even one animal we don’t have a clue what it is and assume it’s a combination of a few that someone thought was funny. Then there is the bear cub on a small tree. That poor little guy was mounted by my Grandfather approximately 40 years ago after an unfortunate encounter with a dump truck. No one can remember the story and he’s been gone since I was just a few years old so no one ever will know what exactly happened. The bear lives a great life here now and we have named him Angus after my grandfather. He’s a great conversation piece and is has been very educational, especially to the man I spent about an hour convincing he was a bear, not a fisher. Angus has lived in quite a few places going from camp to camp so that he could be enjoyed by their visitors. It took a long time to track him down I finally got him back and he will remain at Oley’s along with other family heirloom animals that live on the walls.

Now me and Angus have not had the best relationship over the years. When I was really little and he lived in my grandparent’s basement I was terrified of him and he scared the daylights out of me every time I had to go in the room where he was. Then when he went to live at one of the hunting and fishing camps I worked at things went further downhill. You see it was my job every spring to vacuum the mouse droppings out of the taxidermy- exactly why I prefer them naked-no fur means nowhere for the mice to play in and leave little black disgusting gifts behind.

To me a skull mount or European mount is the most gorgeous form to display an animal. First and foremost on the deer you see the rack, and we all know everyone likes racks, don’t we? And cleaning it is just one simple wipe with a cloth and not one single mouse turd involved. One of my craziest dreams is to mount a skull mount in my closet to hang my necklaces off, I guess it’s a girl hunter thing. Someday I will finally get a buck I can do that with. The two skull mounts I have now are too special and need to be displayed as they have the memories of two amazing hunts. I have brought home more roadkill than I can remember and every so often one of them happens to be a buck. I always get excited because I think I’m getting a necklace holder for my closet finally! -but that’s not how it goes. A skull mount is supposed to be a simple thing to do. Mmhhhmmm. Bury it they said. So I tried that- I waited about six months and in the end I got mush. Boil it and scrape off the meat they said. So I tried that too-I ended up with some sort of meat bone soup-and oh the smell. But now I know the trick to a perfect skull mount- get someone else to do it!

All of the animals on the wall at Oley’s have a story. I wish I knew the history of all of them. Who shot them? Was it their first hunt or a brand new gun that they used to finally take down a buck they had been hunting for years? We’ll never know for most of them why they meant so much to the hunter that they mounted that animal. At Oley’s I am happy to accept any donations of taxidermy no matter what animal it is and what type of mount. I will probably always stick with my preference for the naked ones but the hairy ones can grow on you and you can learn to love them too even if you have to overlook the fur sometimes.