Ok, so yesterday my friend and I went to Buffalo to pick up my fairy house from the Birchfield Penny Art Museum at the Buffalo University college. On the way there I saw this cool colored pale striped tail...Roadkill of course, lol. So I got my friend to stop so I could get it on the way back. I went over and checked it out and it looked too far gone at first, so I got back in the car, but I could not get the image of that pelt out of my head. I kept going back and forth as to it being too far gone and thinking I should have grabbed it anyways.

As it happened, my friend had to take her brother to the Buffalo airport by 4:45am this morning. So here was my sign. Here was my second chance to get that raccoon pelt. And I took it.

Now for the facts. No, I don't have a picture yet. Will I soon? Suuure. I *might* take a before pict of it in the garbage bag, but it's not too pretty. lol. It's a baby, too, and it's not your average coloration. Remember that pale striped tail? Well this raccoon is pale, like a blonde racccoon, but it has a very dark, almost black dorsal stripe.  I kid you not. I've looked up pale and blonde raccoons, but I haven't seen anything that looks remotely like this little guy. If it's pale, it looks like these:
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My raccoons' mask is almost like the second picts' mask. But still, where does that dorsal stripe come from? idk, but it's awesome! Maybe a hybrid between a skunk and a raccoon? lol jk

Now here comes the not so pleasant side of this guy. I thought he was too far gone, too damaged/dried out... You know? Too far gone. Well I decided he.... er... she? ....I'll get back to you on that one. But I grabbed it, and it's still slightly.... juicy. XP  Also, it's this side of too fresh, if you know what I mean. But for such an unusual and prabably once in a lifetime pelt on it..... I think I'm willing to hold my breath lol. I will let you know how the preserving goes. I think I'll try to start on it this afternoon. I'm thinking I'll be dumping a lot of Borax into the garbage bag and shaking it up. At least it'll smell better.  Once the pelt, and it does have an adorabel face, too!... is removed and pinned/stretched with borax on it and then scraped and so on, I'll see if there are and teeth etc that are salvageable. Mostly, I think I'll be buring it's remains and keeping it's pelt.

I know I need to borax it according to most tutorials I've seen for at home tanning. Any other tips you guys might have? I also have a taxidermy catelog I just got in the mail. *So excited!!!* I might put glass eyes in it. Or mount the head. I don't think it's full body taxidermiable. The feet are very damaged. So a wall hanging it shall be. But a rare and treasured wall hanging.