Linger Lodge

One of my true passions is photographing taxidermy.   To me the stranger, the dirtier and more perplexing the taxidermy the better.  On my recent trip to Florida, I hit taxidermy heaven.  Going on a tip from living Florida encyclopedia, Rick Kilby, I visited the magnificent Linger Lodge.

Greeting us outside the gate was a bunch of vultures eating a Possum.

Quite simply, the Linger Lodge has the best collection of weird, bad and bizarre taxidermy I have ever seen.   Upon entering you are greeted by this antichrist-esque fox.

"Chaos Reigns!"

Of course Linger Lodge is actually a bar/restaurant, not a museum, so we have to eat our food before we look around.  Of course I knew I was in for quite the treat when the waitress led us underneath a sign where their name was spelled out in actual snakes!

So after my meal of blacked alligator and green mashed potatoes, it was time to explore.

Sitting above the fireplace is the stuffed carcass of a massive gator that was allegedly killed by the owner in mortal combat, accented with a nice human leg.

Keeping with the theme, the owner also displayed a picture of his own swollen snake bit hand next to the snake that bit it....

Stuffed rattle snakes are lurking around almost every corner.....

Throughout the restaurant is some of the most wonderfully disfigured taxidermy you will ever lay eyes on.

Possibly the saddest piece of taxidermy I have ever seen is the lumpy faced cat.....

 

Take a closer look........

Nice kitty........

The official animal of the South is also represented in this twisted menagerie......

 

Check out this Otter with its gaping empty maw......

 

Or this nightmarish fox squirrel cuddling a toy koala for some reason....

Speaking of squirrels, this guy needs a dusting.....

And then we get a set of Squirrels playing various sports....

Swish!

 To not discriminate we even have a mounted person..........


Then we move into the wonderful world of Crypto-taxidermy!  We start out with this impressive "Turkey Rattler".....

And the slightly less impressive "Florida Walking Catfish".....

Of course what would any taxidermy menagerie be without the requisite Jackalope.....

 And fur covered fish........

And to cap things off we have this one-of-a-kind fantastic and inexplicable Blue Billed Othlock.....

All in all I give the Linger Lodge a Million out of five stars!

The Carpetbagger

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