“Stuckie” The Mummified Dog

Well, 50 years ago a dog went up a tree chasing a racoon or perhaps for something. Unfortunately he never came down. Thus, fast forward 20 years. But, that’s exactly what a team of loggers with the Georgia Kraft Corp. found, while cutting down a chestnut oak tree in the 1980s, somewhere in a forest in the state of Georgia, the United States of America. When they sawed off the trunk, they were stunned to discover the mummified corpse of a dog entombed inside.

Furthermore, the kind of tree that the dog had lodged itself in was exclusively qualified to lend itself to the natural mummification process. Chestnut oaks contain tannins, which are used in taxidermy and tanning to treat animal pelts so that they don’t decay. The tannins from the inside of the tree seeped out into the dog and prevented it from rotting inside. Actually, the dog had chased his prey down a hollow in the tree where it became stuck and then died of starvation.

Moreover, dry conditions inside the hollow of the tree endorsed the corpse to dry without rotting. The upward draft of air seemingly carried the scent of the dead animal away, so it wasn't devoured by insects or other creatures. The tannic acid of the oak, which is a natural desiccant, also supported to absorb the moisture and hardened the animal's skin. In its place of pulping the log, the loggers donated it whole with the dog still stuck inside to the Southern Forest World, a museum in Waycross dedicated to the history of forestry, where it remains on display. The mummified dog, teeth still bared in a fight for survival.

No one knows how Stuckie got stuck, but experts think he has been stuck since 1960. From the last 20 years or so, the dog was called simply "Mummified Dog." But in 2002, the museum ran a name-the-dog contest, and the name "Stuckie" was chosen. The innocent four-year-old dog has been known by that name since then.