Baby, it's cold outside, and it's hunting season. Both things speak to furs, furs, furs…read more I had my own fur to deal with this season. Won't get too into it, but basically I accidentally salvaged a raccoon off the side of the road and successfully skinned it with a partner in crime and the help of a YouTube video. We had a perfect, furry raccoon hide in the freezer and didn't know what the hell to do. Attempts to stretch it over the nose of my surfboard and flesh it soon intimidated us; YouTube tutorials weren't helping in that regard and we had none of the equipment to properly remove the fat, cartilage, and offal from the inside of the hide. In desperation, I performed multiple searches for "taxidermist," since "flesher" seemed too esoteric and horrifying. A search on Yelp just revealed cool bars, galleries, and stores featuring taxidermy. Finally, I found this article: http://nypost.com/2011/08/08/new-york-citys-last-taxidermist-has-the-right-stuff/ Gathering up all my courage, I called this man and asked if he did fleshing. Of course he did, for a mere $25 bucks! Still, it took a couple phone calls of my futile question-asking before I realized that, not only did I not have any alternative in this city, but this guy really knew what he was doing. He was talking about how the ears had to be "turned out" and the cartilage in the nose had to be something-or-othered so it wouldn't pucker up as it dried. Good thing I asked to confirm his business location, too, because it turns out that Mr. Youngaitis has moved offices from Cypress Hills Taxidermy Studio in Brooklyn to a spot labeled "TAXIDERMY" on a rather residential road in Middle Village, Queens (http://thebrooklynink.com/2011/07/18/26501-new-yorks-only-taxidermist-stuffs-his-last/). There's plenty of street parking, or a little hoofing from the Middle Village M-train stop will get you there. What I saw was a super small, glassy storefront with no one in it, but tons of animals, seemingly one of each under the sun: bear, rabbit, swordfish, chameleon, bird, housecat, buck...honestly, the list goes on and on, nearly putting the American Natural History Museum to shame. Seriously. I rang the doorbell, and the man himself appeared, talking on his cell phone to another avid inquirer. He was very approachable and reassuring, and patient when I required a whole lot more reassuring. Note: vendor accepts CASH ONLY, but if you're still stuck cashless like me, there's a deli around the corner of an auto shop that has a 99-cent fee ATM. When I handed him $25, he said, "Oh, you could have just put down a deposit!" but then shrugged, and marked me paid in his paper records. This done, I left my rolled up, ziplocked raccoon skin right there on his table and left on faith that he'd call anytime between that day (mid-November) and the beginning of the new year. Already, a whole family had crammed into the store, and John's phone was ringing off the hook as hunters made appointments to drag in their prizes. And it's not just killers of animals who consult John for his comprehensive animal preservation services, either; lots of people want to immortalize their dear pets. And others are just randos like me who peeled the skin off a sadly slain animal and then didn't know where to go from there. I got a call right after Thanksgiving. There were the animals again, and there was John, with the raccoon in the same plastic bag I'd left it in, only this time it was completely clean and salted and a hell of a lot lighter, ready for tanning by either me or a service. He said he had a tanning guy (to make a soft, wearable pelt instead of a hardened, furry relic). But I proudly told him I'd look into some kits, and that I could take it from there. But seriously, if you need a taxidermist, John Youngaitis knows that he's doing. You can tell by the remarkably lifelike specimens in his store, which he did all by himself or with his father. And if you need someone to clean out a fresh skin so you can send it to a tanner, again, John's your man. Fleshing is the part of the process that is most critical and hardest to pull off since not doing a good job leads to rot. I almost want to skin an animal again so I can go give him more business, but I won't seek out the opportunity; one experience is enough. Anyway, he seems plenty busy - busier than you all might think in a city where there are only really rats, pigeons, and squirrels. Thank you, John!

John repaired my owl taxidermy mount for a very reasonable price of $50. He mounted the owl on a…read morebrand new wooden mount and he cleaned the eyes and nails of the specimen. I am very pleased with his work.