WACKY James Arnold is going big game hunting - in the quest for a stuffed moose's head.
The eccentric 28-year-old wants to hang the trophy in his bathroom, at his Bicester home, in a bizarre tribute to his grandad Billy.
His fearless grandfather was a big game hunter in Canada, who bagged a collection of trophies before a freak accident at work prevented him from pulling a trigger again.
The collection of heads crossed the Atlantic when Billy and wife Annie moved to Britain. But after Billy's sudden death from a heart attack in 1951, aged 51, the trophies were thrown out.
Mr Arnold, of Victoria Road, Bicester, said: "My grandmother always regretted getting rid of them."
His grandmother died last October, aged 95, setting Mr Arnold on the big game trail. He explained: "I decided I wanted something to remember them by and thought a stuffed animal head would be appropriate.
He is hoping someone in north Oxfordshire or further afield has a stuffed animal head they no longer need. "What I really want is one of those antique mooseheads with glass eyes that seem to follow you round the room."
Mr Arnold, a graphic designer for Gecko Ltd in Bicester, lives with wife Amy and their children Lily, two, and Joe, six months. He said: "I want to hang the head above the bathroom at the top of the stairs. My wife is keeping well out of it. She thinks it will scare our kids."
Expert Danny Price, a taxidermist from Herefordshire, said a stuffed stag head with antlers would cost about £200 - but a moose head would be more than double. He said: "It is a nice idea to remember the old folks with a trophy on the wall and I could probably track down what he's after."
He added: "All men are hunters. If they are not out hunting animals they are out hunting women. That's life."
His grandparents met in Edmonton and married in 1923 after his grandmother had left England with her mother to start a new life in Canada following the First World War. They moved to York in 1933.
His grandfather worked in a saw-mill and enjoyed hunting moose in the Canadian wilderness. But his hunting came to an abrupt halt when a circular saw at work sliced three fingers off his right hand.
After the accident they decided to come to Britain and moved to York in 1933.
They moved to York in 1933 and raised their son, William, Mr Arnold's father.
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