Possumlope spotted in Saratoga

For a brief amount of time, Koyoty Sports & Trophy Room Taxidermy in downtown Saratoga will be home to the world's first and, so far, only possumlope. According to co-owner Warden Patzer, one of his customers recently came in with a possum he had harvested and the original intention was to turn it into a shoulder mount.

"We tanned the hide and it came out really good," said Warden. "So, I called him up and asked him if he wanted to do a life-size mount. He said, 'I don't care if you put fangs on it.'"

With permission to be a little off-the-wall, Warden's son Forrest Patzer decided to be as creative as he could with the mount. While there will eventually be small fangs for the possumlope, Forrest first handmade small antelope horns to put on the mount.

"It's really just a gag gift," said Forrest.

This isn't the first time that a taxidermist has taken creative liberties when it comes to "creating" new animals. Wyoming's most famous mythical creature, and one now seen in taxidermy shops across the country, is the jackalope. The creation of the jackalope is attributed by the The New York Times to Douglas Herrick of Douglas, Wyoming.

Herrick and his brother had studied taxidermy via mail order and, following an outing in which they had harvested jackrabbits, had tossed their bounty in their store next to some deer antlers. The combination of the jackrabbit and the deer antlers sparked Herrick's imagination and the first jackalope was born and sold to Roy Ball for $10 where it was displayed in the La Bonte Hotel until it was stolen in 1977.

Since 2005, there have been three attempts to declare the jackalope the official mythical animal for Wyoming but all have failed. That, however, hasn't stopped people from associating the animal with Wyoming as it is now used as a logo for the Wyoming Lottery.

It remains to be seen if the possumlope of Saratoga will be able to reach such great heights, especially as it can't jump nearly as high as the jackalope. For the time being, however, Togie and Koyoty Sports have the honor of saying they had the world's first.