Matzo,

This is what I know of the events... I will have Joyce give you more details, but this is just so you can get the general gist of the situation.

Joyce received the initial call from the local animal control officer on March 14th. She and our local Nuisance Wildlife control guy, Craig Coon, went down to the homeless shelter where he was last seen and set some hav-a-hart traps. Joyce was diligent with her quest to catch poor little Logan. She went looking for him two to three times a day, and was very upset at the thought that he was out there cold and alone.

On March 15th with the help of Ken Barnett, who is employed with New York State [NYS] DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) and is familiar with Coatimundi, Joyce was able to get in touch with Roland Kay from the NYS museum. Roland called Joyce from Panama where he was doing research, to discuss Logan's situation. He was a wealth of information on trapping since he has experience tracking and trapping Kinkajous in Panama.

On the evening of March 16th we were hit with a nor'easter dropping 14 inches of snow. It was thought that there was no hope for Logan, but he survived and on March 17th he was again spotted running through the woods behind the shelter. Joyce continued to go to the location two to three times a day and had the help of some of the shelter staff with checking the traps..... 1 kitten and 3 squirrels were caught, but no Coati.

I made some calls and put out some e-mails trying to locate a coati Rescue and someone who could give us advice on trapping him. Matzo, a Wildlife Rehabilitator from Coleman Wisconsin, forwarded my e-mail to Denise [Richfield Wisconsin] from Coati Rescue and called me to let me know that Denise would be in contact. Denise was wonderful, a wealth of information.

On March 21st Sue Green, from Guilderhaven Cat Rescue, and I went down to help Joyce with her Coati quest. There were tracks everywhere!! He had been running all through the woods. When we got there we checked the first trap to find that it was tripped but no Logan. I went trekking through the snow trying to spy a glimpse of him or where he might be living, but no luck. So, we decided to go check the other trap.

We drove over to the home depot where the trap was set. Joyce and Sue walked along the edge of the woods and I went down in to check for tracks. All of the sudden Sue started yelling... "Sarah, He's here!! He's here!! He was in the trap!!!" the key word here is WAS. I went bounding through the deep snow like a cottontail trying to get there as fast as I possibly could with oranges and thick gloves in hand. "He's trapped by the fence, he's by the fence!!!" Running as fast as I could through the snow and thick brush, I saw him! There he was !! So, small... walking along the fence.

Once I saw him I stopped running and trying to be as quiet as possible, started walking along with him so I could get in front of him maybe cutting him off, then I could try offering him some food. But he was way too smart for our foolish human games. He quickly walked along the fence and then disappeared into the brush. Sue met me in the woods wondering where he went. I had to tell her I had lost him.

Then I heard it.... a pathetic little cry. My eyes welled up, "He's crying!" I told Sue. Did you hear that??!! We spotted him a few times after that but what will always be burned into my mind is spotting him sitting in a clearing the in the woods looking up and letting out a most pathetic cry. That is something I will never forget, and sit here tears in my eyes as I recall that poor little Coati sitting there suffering and feeling so helpless.

I sat in that same clearing in the deep snow tossing marshmallow and pieces of orange just hoping that he would come to investigate, but nope, he wanted nothing to do with such things. After four hours we finally gave up for the day, exhausted, feeling defeated, helpless, frustrated, and just plain sick that we couldn't help poor little Logan.

While there we did find that the large trap that he had be in was frozen and that is why it did not trip. So, we de-iced the trap, put some tasty treats in there and discussed the game plan. Sue and Joyce were going to check the trap every couple of hours then shut it down around 10pm, so that if Logan did get trapped he would not be sitting in there all night freezing. That night Tina, from Greyhound Crew rescue, brought her rescued Coati over to try to get her Mr. Peepers to call out but he wouldn't. 

The morning of March 22nd, Joyce received a call to get over to the shelter immediately. Sue and 2 staff members from the shelter, Sonya and Louise ,who had been wonderful thru this rescue, checking and resetting traps were waiting in the parking lot with a camera to photograph her reaction . Logan was Rescued!! I received the call from Joyce with the good news in route to the veterinary clinic.

If it weren't for Joyce's dedication Logan would not have been rescued. She stopped everything, even going to work, to rescue this poor little coati. Joyce was literally sick from the thought of him out there suffering, she did an awesome job!! Kudos to Joyce for all of her hard work!!  

While writing this it is so heart warming to realize how many people were involved with this situation and even though Logan is not in perfect shape, he is alive and recovering. What a HUGE team effort! GO TEAM!!  
 

Talk to you later

 

Sarah

Sarah Unger NYS Wildlife Rehabilitator
Fed Migratory bird rehabilitator
Working in the fields of avian medicine and behavior since 1990

Hi

My name is Joyce Perry. I am the person who headed up the rescue of Logan. I was able to find others to pitch in and help and I spent many days out in the snow 2 ft. deep here in Albany, NY.  
 

The pet store was in Endicott, NY and I am working with NYDEC special licenses to see if there is anything we can do to them. This was an irresponsible act not only on their part but the owner who let him go because he knew he was in trouble when Logan was found in his room.  The Animal control officer arrived 3 hours after the call from the staff..by then the owner had sneaked in the back and let the animal out the window.   Animal Control called me (I am a Licensed Rehabber , Fed and State I also belong to North Country Wild Care).  By then Logan was running like crazy..I can't imagine how frightened he must have been. ,

 

We tried desperately to capture Logan for days hoping to get him in before the storm and then we had a very bad storm.  I was out in the sleet and the ice looking for Logan but no luck and the storm grew worse. The next day the mammal curator at the state museum came and tracked him for me...we saw him for a second in another location so we set traps in both areas with lots of smelly goodies. I caught 1 kitten and 3 squirrels. The house staff and another rescuer and  a nuisance wildlife officer all pitched in. We scheduled visits to traps and closed them down at night so no animal would freeze at night.  It was brutally cold and icy.
 

We were ecstatic when we found Logan in the trap after 8 days of wandering the woods and brush in knee deep snow.  Everything was on hold until we found Logan.