Contest to name museum's mummified dog dubs him "Stuckie"

WAYCROSS, Ga. - Directors of a tiny museum in south Georgia chose from hundreds of contest entries to pick the name &#34;Stuckie&#34; for a mummified coon hound, carefully preserved by the resin of a hollow chestnut oak.<br> <br> About 300 people submitted names to the contest sponsored by Southern Forest World, where the petrified pooch - which apparently died after becoming wedged in the hollow tree while hunting in the 1960s - has been on display.<br> <br> Museum directors passed over entries such as Dogwood, Mummaduke, King Pup, Tuck and Chipper.<br> <br> &#34;We got a lot of really good names from people,&#34; executive director Holly Beasley said. &#34;But unfortunately they didn&#39;t make the final cut.&#34;<br> <br> Three people, all residents of northeast Florida, submitted versions of the winning name. To avoid possible trademark infringement with the Stuckey&#39;s restaurant chain, the museum board settled on &#34;Stuckie&#34; and christened the calcified canine Tuesday.<br> <br> Janet Skinner and Jimmy Sutton, of Jacksonville, Fla., and Cindy Johns, of Hilliard, Fla., each won a museum T-shirt and a year&#39;s family membership.<br> <br> Skinner said her suggestion was inspired not just by the unfortunate dog&#39;s fate of becoming wedged in the log, but by her memories of a sweet treat of her childhood.<br> <br> &#34;I mean he&#39;s in a log, he&#39;s stuck, and that made me think of those pecan logs that you&#39;d get at the roadside Stuckey&#39;s stand,&#34; she said.<br> <br> The 4-year-old dog - one of the museum&#39;s most talked-about exhibit for many years - was discovered in the early 1980s by loggers clearing a stand of timber near the state line between Cleburne County, Ala., and Haralson County, Ga.<br> <br> The dog and the tree were donated to the museum in rural southeast Georgia, where officials researched its story.<br> <br> Beasley said Stuckie was hunting with its master about 40 years ago and chased a squirrel or raccoon up into a hollow tree. It became wedged in the tree and died about 20 feet off the ground, just a few feet shy of an exit hole.<br> <br> Environmental conditions inside the oak tree perfectly preserved the carcass, Beasley said, while protecting it from scavengers and insects.<br> <br>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/10/189093