gift of a dead rodent

I am pretty sure he is a mouse, though his tail isn't very furry. It was a gift from my lovely dog Karma, who knows that I love it when dogs behave like dogs, and, perhaps, that several professors suggest I practice drawing dead things.

In this one he is most obviously dead, and you can see his little mouse-penis.

My dad thought it was awesome that I was doing watercolors of a dead mouse on the kitchen floor next to the dog door (my mom and I were pretty worried about getting dead mouse anywhere near food implements in the kitchen) and took some pictures of me working. I might've taken it upstairs to my "studio" but I hadn't made it yet.

More after the jump.

I wanted to do more -- hell, I wanted to keep doing drawings as it decayed -- but the consensus was (1) we have no idea how to preserve it (2) it might attract gross bugs (3) the dog may try to devour it and get sick. (I kind of suspect that since it died due to being attacked by my dog, rather than due to illness, it doesn't have any nasty diseases, but then, I'm not even sure whether this critter is a mouse or a rat.)