My Puppy Ate My Caribou Skull

[SWOHTR]

I'm happy to read the OP has come to a sensible understanding of the situation. As frustrating as it was in the moment, I think the memories will be worth more. This is something I've struggled with before and think I am finally making progress on. I actively seek the positive in a situation, and then frame the "problem" in a bigger scheme of things.

What negative impact will a chewed up skull ultimately have on the quality of one's life? I leave that to you to answer.

 

[ORJoe]

Got a cougar a few years ago, my first big game animal.
A few weeks after I boiled the skull (another funny story) I was pulling into the driveway after work. I saw some white or pink jagged thing on the ground and didn't think a lot of it. Probably a chewed up Frisbee that the dogs leave laying all over the place, so I try to avoid running it over, but I don't put that much effort into it.
Miss it with the front wheel. Back wheel comes around.
[Crunch]
"WTF was that?"
Get out of the truck and the smell hits me.
"Ah yes, boiled cougar skull!"
I had it sitting in a tub or something by the side of the garage, and a raccoon or stray cat must have tried to drag it home and quit halfway across the driveway.
So that's why I don't have a Euro mount cougar skull.

But before that:
I'm boiling this skull out in the yard a few weeks earlier.
Don't really know what I'm doing, boil it a bit, scrape it a bit, cram a stick in the brain and stir it around, pull some meat off I guess?
Very disgusting smelling, so I'm making sure to hang out upwind of the thing. Dogs love the smell because they're dogs.
Pluck the eyeballs out into the pile of brainmeat trash and go to put the skull back in the pot.
Walk away the other way because of the breeze. Come back in a minute.
The eyeballs are missing from my nasty pile.
Dog is about 10 feet away and gets that guilty look on her face.

"You're not fooling me Della doggy,
Your smile is a thin disguise,
but I thought by now you'd realize:
There ain't no way to hide those lion eyes!"

 

[HighUintas]

I've learned that lesson. And it sucks. Dogs make tasty game too

 

[dutch_henry]

That sucks. Yup, my dog has wrecked an in-progress whitetail euro and a turkey tail. Now that he has a taste for them, he's a more successful hunter than I am.

What really shames me is the look he gives me when he's heading out with his longbow. Such disdain for my compound, like I'm suddenly a lesser person.

 

[DatGuyy]

had a euro mount fall(multiple times) from above the fire place. aggravating, but ultimately no one to blame but myself.

 

[Voyageur]

This is purely a venting post. While waiting for my hook to come in to hang my euro mount, I had stored the skull on the bed in our guest room. My wife went in to do some computer work and didn’t shut the door when she was done. I walked down from putting the kids to bed and my hunting pup chewed the first third of the skull clean off. At about $1100 into it, getting it shipped from AK through getting it boiled. I am not a happy camper. Pouring a stiff drink or two to cool off. First Alaska hunt. Pretty bummed.

Anybody ever have a skull ruined?

Your story makes me feel not so bad about my puppy ripping a strip of velvet off my caribou euro mount a couple nights ago!

 

[Birddy]

Oh man, that is too bad. Dang dogs haha

 

[Paul J]

This is purely a venting post. While waiting for my hook to come in to hang my euro mount, I had stored the skull on the bed in our guest room. My wife went in to do some computer work and didn’t shut the door when she was done. I walked down from putting the kids to bed and my hunting pup chewed the first third of the skull clean off. At about $1100 into it, getting it shipped from AK through getting it boiled. I am not a happy camper. Pouring a stiff drink or two to cool off. First Alaska hunt. Pretty bummed.

Anybody ever have a skull ruined?

Yes, I had an awesome Pope and Young whitetail, and left it outside for a day and the squirrels found it. Very upsetting. I know how you feel.

 

[roosiebull]

This is purely a venting post. While waiting for my hook to come in to hang my euro mount, I had stored the skull on the bed in our guest room. My wife went in to do some computer work and didn’t shut the door when she was done. I walked down from putting the kids to bed and my hunting pup chewed the first third of the skull clean off. At about $1100 into it, getting it shipped from AK through getting it boiled. I am not a happy camper. Pouring a stiff drink or two to cool off. First Alaska hunt. Pretty bummed.

Anybody ever have a skull ruined?

I have had a few skulls chewed up by my pups… I don’t blame them (at least after the first time) I just accept that I didn’t do my part to keep it out of reach, and know the consequences well enough… it’s not the end of the world, it will cost you some time and money to have it fixed, but that’s a compromise we make having dogs… it’s still a good trade off to me.

I have had skulls chewed up after the dogs had ignored them for awhile, but one day, one decided it smelled good and ate the nose off.

One was puppy sitting for my sis in law, not even my dog, but I know better

They have never messed with a bleached skull of mine, but they go for boiled/degreased ones if given the chance.

I feel for you, but blaming your wife or dog will do nothing good and will dilute the lesson to be learned, that’s my perspective anyhow

If a cat ate one of my skulls, that’s where my accountability ends, I would absolutely blame the cat though, they are nasty little bastards with bad intentions

 

[String&stick]

I'm not saying you should blame your wife for leaving the door open. . . But I do feel like it's a missed opportunity if you don't point out that because of that mistake she made, you're now booking a return trip to get a new skull!!! Of course you'll keep the damaged skull, but great excuse to plan for another one!

 

[coloyooper]

I'm not saying you should blame your wife for leaving the door open. . . But I do feel like it's a missed opportunity if you don't point out that because of that mistake she made, you're now booking a return trip to get a new skull!!! Of course you'll keep the damaged skull, but great excuse to plan for another one!

Moose is planned next!

 

[def90]

I found a deadhead whitetail skull like that once.. the coyotes ate the snout right off. Had a perfect 4x4 rack around the size of a coues deer.

If you have pics of the skull prior to the gnawing maybe you can find a local artist/sculpter to recreate the missing parts with some plaster?

 

[roosiebull]

Moose is planned next!

Take the pooches much longer to get through a moose skull

Sounds like a good plan regardless!

 

[Z71&Gun]

Mount it as-is and remember your pup forever. Best friends are worth way more than bones. You got both. My dog ate my turkey mount a few years back. Now he's old and would never do such a thing. I kept the mangled fan and some day it will remind me of my late friend.

 

[Holmes]

Set my blacktail skull down while packing it up to take to the taxidermist, I thought it was up high enough that my dog couldn't reach it. I was wrong.
I come back outside a few minutes later and most of the skull is in her belly. I was steaming angry, just livid. I've mostly gotten over it now....mostly.
She shat out all those teeth eventually.
Taxidermist took 1/3 off the price, since 1/3 of the skull is gone






It's going on my wall like that, because it's part of the story now.

 

[hunterjmj]

Sounds like it's time to do a euro of the puppy to replace the caribou. Kidding of course. Have you ever seen what a pug's skull looks like though, geez it's terrible looking. Google it.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Looks alien.

 

[TheGDog]

Mount it as-is and remember your pup forever. Best friends are worth way more than bones. You got both. My dog ate my turkey mount a few years back. Now he's old and would never do such a thing. I kept the mangled fan and some day it will remind me of my late friend.

Ya know... as someone who recently went back down to 0 dogs in the house ATM... due to them passing on at 15yo and 15.5yo... I do have to say that you should totally hang in on the skull hooker. Years from now, when that dog is no longer with you.... you'll look up at that skull... and in a weird way... it'll make you smile.