Would You Have Your Cat Mummified?

The New York Post recently profiled PD Cagliastro, a woman who helps ease the pain of mourning pet owners by creating modern day mummies out of the remains of their dearly departed animal companions.

It took the self-proclaimed "sorceress" twenty years to come up with the correct formula for the mini mummies, that she makes out of her home in Brooklyn. Cagliastro has already served 120 customers at $100 - $400 a pop, and while she doesn't strictly work with cats (her charges have included everything from tarantulas to crocodiles), the article quotes two past clients who turned to her after losing their kitties.

Egyptian Cat Mummy at the British Museum by Will Johnson

It may surprise you to learn that Cagliastro claims heart-broken men make up 70 percent of her business.

One man told The Post:

"There was something really special about him," said Sebastian Duque, 26, a web designer who had his cat, Jake, mummified after it was hit by a car in 2008. His frog, Alice, was also preserved in linen and plaster. Jack is now perched on top of his bookshelf in his Upper East Side apartment, and Alice lives in a drawer. (If you're curious, there's a picture of Sebastian and Jake accompanying the original article here.)

While another revealed:

"When my cat died, I had supreme sadness. I was completely destroyed by it," said Turner, 55, an Upper East Side businessman who refused to disclose his last name for fear of being ridiculed. Cagliastro mummified his cat and mounted it on a black velvet cushion last year, and Turner keeps it tucked away in a glass cabinet in his brownstone.

"It's very personal. Even people I know well, I can't say that this is my mummified cat in the corner. They would think you are crazy," he explained.

Via The New York Post / Gothamist