Stuckie The Mummified Dog

Fifty years ago a dog went up a tree chasing a racoon or something. He never came down.

Fast forward twenty years. A group of loggers cut down a chestnut oak somewhere in a forest in the state of Georgia, the United States of America. When they sawed off the trunk, they discovered the mummified corpse of a dog entombed inside. Apparently, the dog had chased his prey down a hollow in the tree where it became stuck and then died of starvation. Dry conditions inside the hollow of the tree allowed the corpse to dry without rotting. The upward draft of air apparently 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 helped absorb the moisture and hardened the animal's skin.

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Photo credit: Scott Beahan/The Newsweek

Instead 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.

For twenty years, 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 4-year-old dog has been known by that name since then.