Fantasy taxidermy was a popular 19th-century idea. Artists created amazing monsters and two-headed creatures from real animals and included them in museums or sideshows. Several recent sales have proved that today’s buyers have a new interest in these fantasy creatures. It is called folk art by some. The squirrels in our yard are aggressive, but not as forbidding as this pair of gun-toting squirrels sold this week at the American Dime Museum auction by Richard Opfer Auctioneering. Price, including buyer’s premium was US$632.50, way over the US$110-US$150 estimate. They also sold other famous fantasies like the jack-a-lope (half jack rabbit, half antelope) for US$207.