That really is a cool end to a potentially chitty story! So glad everything worked out!!
A local, long-term taxidermist let my full-size Shiras bull moose hide rot in his homemade "cooler", while he was waiting to flesh it out...then he waited about 8 months to tell me about the situation. He was going to have it tanned for me, so I could have it on my bannister. I knew something was up when he wasn't answering my calls, but then I called him from my buddies phone and he answered. "Yea man, I've been dreading this conversation...your hide turned green, it must have been something YOU did wrong." (the hide was in fine shape when I dropped it off, and he confirmed it when he put it in his "new" A/C controlled, cobbled together "cooler". I was quite irritated, and all he said was, "sorry about your luck".
It could have been worse though, (I soon told myself) as I've been fortunate enough to draw a moose permit in both WA & ID, and I had the WA bull shoulder mounted. People do some flaky things in life.