it was a hoot

as it turns out, the barn owl (who i've creatively named hoot) was dead and tagged and shoved into a plastic bag in catalogue room in 1984, making it a mummy for longer than i've been alive.  it's entire left  side was crushed (skull, pelvis, wing, etc) so now i get to obsess about how i'll probably fail my project on the (incorrect) grounds that i snapped all his bones while cleaning them.  awesome.  also, apparently bird talons don't hold up well while being simmered in baking soda and meat tenderizer.  just fyi.

suffice to say, i did legs and wings and stopped because the whole enterprise was stressing me out.  this means i have to dedicate another full day to the boiling and stripping of an ancient animal carcass, but until that day comes, i've decided not to think about it.