I COLLECT SKULLS, AND OTHER INTERESTING BONES…
THE MOST COMMON question people ask when they notice my 8 skulls and various bone decorating my space is,
“Where do you get them?”
A reasonable question, to be sure. The first skull I ever, um, harvested, was from a cat that I found dead. I took the head, submerged it in bleach for several days and viola!, I had a clean skull.
It is natural, necessary in fact, that humans have a strong aversion to dead animals. That smell, the sight of decaying flesh and that gut twisting shudder of disgust are natures way of keeping you from disease filled corpses.
I like skulls because they are beautiful. A skull is an intricate account of a life lived. The ridges, clefts, holes and contours tell a story, if you look at it the right way.
Now people think of me when they see a skull and I randomly receive skulls and bones for gifts. One elk season, A friend of a friend’s father shot a cow elk and saved me the horse sized head in a black garbage bag. That phone call was odd.
“Hey, my friends dad heard you collect skulls, he dropped it off and my mom wants this thing out of her freezer.”
I got the huge head, this thing weighed a ton, and lugged it into the woods at my moms house. I dug a shallow hole and put the decapitated head inside. I figured after several months in Southeast Asia the skull would be picked clean by critters and ready for a final cleaning.
When I returned, after 9 months, the skull was gone…drug away by some coyotes or something.
I wish I had that skull.
I have only killed one animal for its skull, a rabbit, and I regret that. I shot a rabbit with a .22 rifle and felt like a complete coward for murdering the animal for a trophy. If I could have taken it back I would have. I didn’t know how I would feel after shooting the animal, but as soon as it was dead I knew that I was not a casual killer.
Now I am given skulls, receive then as gifts and keep an eye out for roadkill.
If you have any skulls you are not using… 
Haha, I used to do this too. My prize pieces were a deer skull from the Texas Hill Country and maybe an elk? femur?, much like the one in your mouth.