Woman mummifies pets

KINGSTON, N.Y., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A New York woman who makes a living mummifying pets says she's "fascinated by this thing called death."

Kingston, N.Y., resident Sorceress Cagliastro is a professional mummy-maker, specializing in pets that weigh up to 100 pounds, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

Her services cost between $800 and $4,000 and include everything from a "simple linen wrap all the way up to painted with semi-precious metals, decorated with heirloom jewelry or, say, a scrolled-up piece of parchment inside," Cagliastro said.

Before starting her unusual business, Cagliastro was an embalmer and did forensic reconstruction work for the chief medical examiner's office. She said she learned about the mummification process by reading Egyptian texts at the Brooklyn Museum while recovering from a car accident 15 years ago.

"I'm fascinated by this thing called death," Cagliastro said. "It's sort of the only thing that everyone experiences."

In the future, Cagliastro says she'd like to mummify humans.

"People choose all kinds of postmortem processes, and this is just one of them," she said