Caitlin Doughty - Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?

Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death

Caitlin Doughty

Illustrations by Diann Ruz

W.W. NORTON & COMPANY

Independent Publishers Since 1923

To future corpses of all ages

This book would not exist without hundreds of questions from morbid little angels. Im thankful for your curious minds and understanding parents.

My editor, Tom Mayer, usually publishes highbrow fare (think, Afghanistan or the history of jazz), but, for me, will go four rounds of edits on corpse poop. My gratitude is obvious.

My agent, Anna Sproul-Latimer, has three flawless children who are almost old enough for Auntie Caitlin to repay Annas years of hard work by teaching them the stages of putrefaction.

I am grateful to have tricked a whole team of professional book publishers at W. W. Norton into taking very seriously questions like, Should the title be Grandmas Viking Funeral or Cat Ate My Eyeballs? Thanks to my immediate team: Erin Lovett, Steve Colca, and Nneoma Amadi-obi. And my big team: Ingsu Liu and Steve Attardo, Brendan Curry and Steven Pace, Elisabeth Kerr and Nicola DeRobertis-Theye, Lauren Abbate and Becky Homiski, and Allegra Huston.

I would have been a wraith wandering the moors of confusion without the keen eyes and research skills of Louise Hung and Leigh Cowart.

The people I get to call both experts and friends, like Tanya Marsh, Nora Menkin, Judy Melinek, Jeff Jorgenson, Monica Torres, Marianne Hamel, and Amber Carvaly.

The whole Order of the Good Death team, especially Sarah Chavez for protecting me from the dark, cruel world.

Diann Ruz for being a diabolical genius.

And finally to Ryan Saylor, the shroud to my casket.

All websites accessed February 3, 2019.

When I die, will my cat eat my eyeballs?

Raasch, Chuck. Cats kill up to 3.7B birds annually. USA Today, updated January 30, 2013. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/29/cats-wild-birds-mammals-study/1873871/.

Umer, Natasha, and Will Varner. Horrifying Stories Of Animals Eating Their Owners. Buzzfeed, January 8, 2015. https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashaumer/cats-eat-your-face-after-you-die?utm_term=.clnqjk9DM#.deQmAwq6K.

Livesey, Jon. Survivalist chihuahua ate owner to stay alive after spending days with dead body before it was found. Mirror, October 30, 2017. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/survivalist-chihuahua-ate-owner-stay-11434424.

Ropohi, D., R. Scheithauer, and S. Pollak. Postmortem injuries inflicted by domestic golden hamster: morphological aspects and evidence by DNA typing. Forensic Science International, March 31, 1995. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7750871.

Steadman, D. W., and H. Worne. Canine scavenging of human remains in an indoor setting. Forensic Science International, November 15, 2007. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Canine+scavenging+of+human+remains+in+an+indoor+setting.

Hernndez-Carrasco, Mnica, Julin M. A. Pisani, Fabiana Scarso-Giaconi, and Gabriel M. Fonseca. Indoor postmortem mutilation by dogs: Confusion, contradictions, and needs from the perspective of the forensic veterinarian medicine. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 15 (SeptemberOctober 2016): 5660. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1558787816301447.

What would happen to an astronaut body in space?

Stirone, Sharon. What happens to your body when you die in space? Popular Science, January 20, 2017. https://www.popsci.com/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-die-in-space.

Order of the Good Death. The final frontier... for your dead body. http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/the-final-frontier-for-you-dead-body.

Herkewitz, William. Could a Corpse Seed Life on Another Planet? Discover, October 25, 2016. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2016/10/25/could-a-corpse-seed-life-on-another-planet/#.WoNe0raZPEb.

crazypulsar. Vacuum & Hypoxia: What Happens If You Are Exposed to the Vacuum of Space? Indivisible System, November 7, 2012. https://indivisiblesystem.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/what-happens-if-you-are-exposed-to-the-vacuum-of-space/.

Czarnik, Tamarack R. Ebullism at 1 Million Feet: Surviving Rapid/Explosive Decompression. Available at http://www.geoffreylandis.com.

Can I keep my parents skulls after they die?

Zigarovich, Jolene. Preserved Remains: Embalming Practices in Eighteenth-Century England. Eighteenth-Century Life 33, no. 3 (October 1, 2009). https://doi.org/10.1215/00982601-2009-004.

Carney, Scott. Inside Indias Underground Trade in Human Remains. Wired, November 27, 2007. https://www.wired.com/2007/11/ff-bones/.

Halling, Christine L., and Ryan M. Seidemann. They Sell Skulls Online?!: A Review of Internet Sales of Human Skulls on eBay and the Laws in Place to Restrict Sales. Journal of Forensic Sciences 61, no. 5 (September 1, 2016). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27373546.

McAllister, Jamie. 4 Things to Do With Your Skeleton After You Die. Health Journal, October 5, 2016. http://www.thehealthjournals.com/4-things-skeleton-die/.

Inglis-Arkell, Esther. So you want to hang your skeleton in public? Heres how. io9, June 6, 2012. https://io9.gizmodo.com/5916310/so-you-want-to-donate-your-skeleton-to-a-friend.

Can bones be willed to a family member after death? Law Stack Exchange, edited December 26, 2016. https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/16007/can-bones-be-willed-to-a-family-member-after-death.

Hugo, Kristin. Human Skulls Are Being Sold Online, But Is It Legal? National Geographic, August 23, 2016. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/human-skulls-sale-legal-ebay-forensics-science/.

OddArticulations. Is owning a human skull legal? January 6, 2018. http://www.oddarticulations.com/is-owning-a-human-skull-legal/.

The Bone Room. Real Human Skulls. https://www.boneroom.com/store/c45/Human_Skulls.html.

Evans, Murray. Its a gruesome job to clean skulls, but somebody has to do it. October 30, 2006. https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/It-s-a-gruesome-job-to-clean-skulls-but-somebody-1218504.php.

Marsh, Tanya. Internet Sales of Human Remains Persist Despite Questionable Legality. Death Care Studies, August 16, 2016. https://www.deathcarestudies.com/2016/08/internet-sales-of-human-remains-persist-despite-questionable-legality/.

Sale of Organs and Related Statutes. https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/135994.pdf.

Vergano, Dan. eBay Just Nixxed Its Human Skull Market. Buzzfeed, July 12, 2016. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/skull-sales.

Shiffman, John, and Brian Grow. Body donation: Frequently asked questions. Reuters, October 24, 2017. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-bodies-qanda/.

Lovejoy, Bess. Julia Pastrana: A Monster to the Whole World. Public Domain Review, November 26, 2014. https://publicdomainreview.org/2014/11/26/julia-pastrana-a-monster-to-the-whole-world/.

Will my body sit up or speak on its own after I die?

Berezow, Alex. Which Bacteria Decompose Your Dead, Bloated Body?