Babycakes the Genet Arrives

November 1, 2000 the SPCA in Largo called and said, "We have a coati here." I asked how they came by the creature and they said that he was found wandering around a posh neighborhood and no one had claimed him. I wondered silently to myself if these people had ever seen a Raccoon up close? There was no way that a coatimundi was wandering around Largo. I asked them to describe the critter and it didn't sound like a coati nor a raccoon. This was before the days when you could just snap a picture with your cell phone and beam it across the bay.

 

I was intrigued, even though I was pretty sure that what I would find would be some Bengal Cat gone feral, so I drove 40 minutes to Largo.

 

When I arrived the caretaker was frantically saying that she thought the poor “coati" would die because it wouldn't eat cat food or dog food and had been days without a meal while they had tried to find the owner.  As I walked down the corridors I shuddered at what kind of experience these last chance shelters must be for anyone who isn't a dog.  The barking was deafening and it was no wonder that whatever was in the cage back there had shut down and refused to eat.

 

We came to a small, stainless steel cage, like the vets have for small animal recovery, and there, scared out of his mind, was an African genet.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genet_(animal)  I told them what they had and explained why pet food wasn't on his menu but that snakes and rodents would be.  He was fast and wild and there was no way they were going to find a pet home for him, so I agreed to take him to the sanctuary.  We guessed his age at the time to be around 5.