Deer Heads Everywhere

I am from a traditional southern family where hunting is king and fishing is queen.  Wives don’t amount to anything from the start of hunting season until the end of fishing season.   Such is life in rural Georgia. 

I have an uncle who has no less than thirty stuffed white tail deer head in his living room alone.  The one deer my aunt shot has a necklace, earrings, and a ruffle sewn around its neck.  The stuffed fish department is a bit lacking as there are only about 20 of those.  And only one cougar.  Oh well.  But the deer are white-tailed and are native to Georgia.  Cougars are not. 

My father studied taxidermy in my youth.  It is the stuffing of animals for posterity and scaring the crud out of youngsters.  I was the only person I knew that grew up in a bedroom with the standard white with gold trim little girl’s canopy bedroom set and a spike deer head.  A spike is a term for a deer with two horns – one on each side, ideally. 

And then there was the bunny lope.  That is my dad’s term for our stuffed pet black baby bunny rabbit that he added horns to.    When he was practicing taxidermy, you had to ensure you only went through the basement at night after it was well lit.  You would be greeted by various assorted deer heads being stuffed.  At some point, they would have protrusions larger than life emanating from the ears.  They were caused by clothespins to hold the ears together while the glue dried.  And they made a horrible shadow that would make the Loch Ness Monster look tame.  It certainly scared me on more than one occasion.  I made sure I knew where all the lights were after that!