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Miss Your Cat? Get Them Mummified!

Ben Yakas

Published May 15, 2011

Modified May 15, 2011

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Ben Yakas

Published May 15, 2011

Modified May 15, 2011

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We hope we don't step on anybody's claws by pointing out that it sometimes seems as if cat owners are sniffing the proverbial cat nip. Oh sure, we love cat fashion shows as much as the next red-blooded American, and surely gay cat marriage has paved major ground for gay human marriage. But once you start talking about mummifying your beloved Mr. Patches through ancient Egyptian rituals...well, it's like Bob Dylan once said: "You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way from getting your cat mummified by a necromancer in Sunset Park."

The Post profiles self-described necromancer and sorceress PD Cagliastro today, claiming she is one of the only "mystics" in the country practicing the ancient Egyptian ritual of mummification for pets. "It was a sick fascination," that she says took her 20 years to master by studying embalming, consulting with chemistry students and reading the few remaining ancient Egyptian texts out there. She's serviced at least 120 customers who came to her from Washington to Oklahama, preserving everything from a championship Connecticut racing pigeon to tarantulas, a caiman crocodile, snake eggs, and of course, many dead cats.

You can get an idea of the chemistry of the process here, but suffice to say, mummification is complicated and takes a long time: Cagliastro has to remove the animal’s organs and dry out the rest by submerging it in a salt mixture for months. Interestingly, she says heart-broken men make up 70 percent of her business. "When my cat died, I had supreme sadness. I was completely destroyed by it...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," said Turner, an Upper East Side businessman who didn't give his last name.

But Cagliastro's greatest dream? To mummify a human. And she already has a potential client lined-up, who has built a chapel in her Midwest home in preparation: "She wants to be entombed like a pharaoh."

Tagged

brooklyn

cats

mummification

pd Cagliastro

pets

sunset park

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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