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Last updated 9:56 am CT February 09, 2010.
Mummy Pet
"My dad was in the crawlspace of my brother's house here, and he was doing some electrical work and found it underneath in the crawlspace," said Benton science teacher Sara Supancic.
IT used to be Jasper, a Yorkshire terrier, who went missing in 1976. Now it's a petrified pup. So how did Jasper go from a dog to a mummified mutt?
"Because in the crawlspace it's a cool dry area and there is no bacteria, no fungus, no bugs or anything to help decompose it, so basically it just kind of dried up and preserved how it is," Supancic explained.
Supancic's brother checked the neighborhood and discovered Jasper's former owners live next door. Obviously, they didn't want the dog returned, so Supancic came up with another idea.
"I'm going to take it back to my classroom, show it to my students, and put it on display because it's a one of a kind find."
A find in excellent condition considering, "I think, especially in Southern Illinois, where it's so humid and we have so many bugs and everything. Its just that conditions had to be exactly right for this to happen and that's really unusual."
Besides the dog's size, its smell, or lack thereof, makes the find even more surprising, "It feels like paper mache, or it feels like a wasps nest. Its just kind of dry, papery, a little bit harder than paper maybe. It sounds kind of hollow," Supancic said.
By Rachel Gartner
rgartner@wsiltv.com
Now: 1265731589
