Introductions

My dear, sweet rat Chuck was humanly euthanized on Monday, August 24 at the age of 2 1/2 years. I had him and his brother Geoffrey since they were five weeks old. Here's Chuck during happier days:

I brought his remains home to bury him when a flash of inspiration hit me. Since Chucky was such a great rat I decided that a simple burial wouldn't do. Mummification in the ancient Egyptian tradition was much more fitting. Not that I had much of an idea how to do that. Thank goodness many have gone before me and there is tons of information on the web outlining the whole process. I went shopping today to get the various supplies needed. Here's my setup:

My scalpel and suture kit are sitting on a piece of muslin covering a disposable cookie sheet, where I will open Chuck up and take out his organs to be embalmed along with his body. The needle and thread will be used to sew Chuck up once his organs have been removed and he's been stuffed with muslin packets filled with natron salt. The rubber gloves will help me from getting too grossed out by the whole thing. The two containers in the back are 12 pounds of natron (sodium carbonate) which the Egyptians used to draw all the moisture out of the body during the forty day embalming process.

In subsequent posts I will be documenting the whole mummification process which will include graphic pictures of the dissection and embalming. Right now Chuck is defrosting in the fridge in order to begin his journey into the Egyptian underworld tomorrow morning. I think he's excited.