Woolly Mammoth Antiques and Oddities is a Chicago store not for the faint of heart

If you marvel over the macabre, or just crave the curious, a small store on the North Side of Chicago might be just the place for you.

As its name makes clear, Woolly Mammoth Antiques and Oddities is a shop that's anything but ordinary.

"I like things that weren't intended to be creepy, but then just became creepy with time," said owner Adam Rust.

Rust said his Foster Street store on the cusp of Uptown and Andersonville is not for the faint of heart.

Among its curiosities are three two-headed cows, and that's just the beginning.

It also has a mounted lion's head Rust got from a collector in Beverly.

"He's actually way older than he looks," Adam said.

Other examples of its terrific taxidermy include a pair of boxing ground squirrels.

"A friend of mine sold that to me," Adam said. "I just don't know if I could ever part with it.

If after seeing all this, you need a drink, a "whiskey raccoon" is all yours.

Where does all this stuff come from?

"I love a good flea market," Adam said. "A lot of dealers, and a lot of private collectors … I do a lot of auctions."

What makes the cut?

"It's a gut feeling. You just know it," he said.

On the tamer side, Adam loved trumpets growing up, so there are some of those.

And then, there's an animatronic dog holding a cleaver and a meat carving fork over a butcher's block covered in bones.

"This took a lot of work to get going again," Adam said. "What I love about him is he has glass eyes, too."

There are so many eclectic items at Adam's shop, it's enough to make your head spin.

Need a hand? They've got them, too.

But let's find out a little about Adam. This part probably will not surprise you.

"I've always kind of been interested in counterculture, like punk rock music," he said. "Anything that's macabre."

Adam and his wife and co-owner, Skye, are also big horror fans.

"When we travel, we go to cemeteries, or catacombs, or mausoleums," Adam said.

On their honeymoon, Adam said, "We went to all the haunts of Vlad the Impaler," the real-life inspiration for Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.

Closer to home, Adam also loves creepy stuff about Chicago, especially the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. The store features a bullet found at the crime scene.

"That's an actual relic from that event," he said.

While shopping at the store, Mariola Zalewski checked out some of the antique medical equipment on sale.

"I'm a nurse, so I find it interesting," she said.

Was there anything in the store that weirded her out?

"For me, none of it really," she said.

Like many others, she's a repeat customer.

"There's kids that come in, or adults that come in now, that tell me, 'Oh yeah, my dad used to bring me in when I was just this tall,'" Adam said.

Sabine Filerman's uncle first brought her to Woolly Mammoth.

"I've been coming here since I was maybe 10 or 11 years old," she said. "I really like the taxidermy. I've been interested in taxidermy for a while."

No bones about it, there's a lot packed into Woolly Mammoth's 400 square feet, and Adam and his customers wouldn't have it any other way.

Adam said, when it comes to stocking up the store, he remembers one piece of advice from another store owner on Clark Street.

"He gave us one piece of advice we've followed ever since: buy what you love," Adam said. "I really love it all. I find new things all the time."

Adam said his customers come from all walks of life. Tracking on social media shows two-thirds of them are women between 20 and 40 years old.