Taxidermy Tales

There's nothing like taxidermy, and sometimes models of animals,
for creating opportunities to talk with visitors in museums.

I know I love to chat, and talk to visitors, helping them to engage with objects in museums,

but sometimes all you need is a stuffed animal and they're off,

sharing their own experiences with these animals outside the museum.

Taxidermy in the Horniman Museum seems to bring out the storyteller
in the Great British public.

Like the couple, "not from London"

who had Grass snakes mating in their garden.

"They were there for hours. Entwined.

They were still there when we came back from the shops."

Then there was the woman who put her coat on to go out,

 put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a live mouse.

Then there was the lady, and you couldn't tell by looking at her,

who had had enough, she was pee'd off (I use that word advisedly)

with the badgers digging up her garden.

So when they began burrowing into the foundations of her house,

she took matters into her own hands, it was time to act.

She knew exactly what to do.

She wee'd in the hole they were digging.

"At night of course. They never came back!"

Then there's my favourite story, in a previous blog-post.

About the teenager who wasn't terribly complimentary about her brother's girlfriend.

Click here to read it.

On further reflection, it may have been a compliment.

It depends what you think of Pekinese.

Why not visit the Horniman Museum and see if the stuffed animals in the
Natural History Gallery.
It may inspire you to tell a tale or two.

Details on their website here.