She is NOT on the Tour Path.
After working late one evening in October of 2024, our Executive Director locked up her office and prepared to head home, only to stumble upon the most unexpected thing sitting just outside our front gate…
It was a medium-sized transport crate, on top of which was a quarter-bag of dry dog food and a handwritten note, and inside was a coyote.
According to the note her name was Cody. She lived the majority of her life in a 4×6 foot cage, except for once a month when she was allowed to run in a big, fenced in yard. Her owners were the only people she’d ever known, but they grew too old to continue caring for her. She was raised on a diet of dog food, with meat on occasion. Oh, and her favorite thing in the world was her Mallard Duck toy.
After the initial shock of this discovery wore off, our Director immediately notified the team and requested assistance getting Cody settled into a temporary enclosure before night fell.
Unsurprisingly, Wild Spirit didn’t have any empty enclosures available at the time Cody was left on our doorstep, and we were forced to house her in a 10×20 foot sub-enclosure typically only used for animals in post-surgery recovery. Though that amount of space was extremely small compared to what we usually provide our coyotes, knowing it was more than double what she spent the first three years of her life in brought a small amount of relief. She’d been with us all of 30 minutes and we were improving her life already.
The moment Cody was released from her crate into this new space, she spent a few moments getting used to her three new wolfdog neighbors, then she began to pace. And pace. And pace.
Over the course of the next few days, Cody did almost nothing but pace, even when offered food, treats, and toys. This type of stress-based response isn’t uncommon in new rescues, especially those that come to us with pre-existing trauma, but we believed Cody’s were exacerbated by being confined in such a small area. We knew we needed to get her into a larger enclosure as soon as possible.
Fortunately, at the time of Cody’s arrival we had two single wolfdogs we thought might make a good pair. They were successfully introduced and just like that, a full-sized enclosure became available for our little yote girl! After being seen by our vet, she was relocated to her new home: likely the largest space she has ever experienced.
While living in the small, temporary enclosure, Cody had connected exclusively with Marshall, one of our Building & Maintenance team, and we wondered if her feelings toward people (including him) might change once she was in a larger area.
Indeed, Cody’s transformation was instantaneous, but in the best possible ways. She ceased pacing entirely and quickly began approaching people at the fence line. She would even take food, treats, and toys from our hands! Her bond with Marshall became stronger than ever, and with him present, she soon began interacting with other members of our team.
As a youngster, Cody has boundless energy and loves trying to instigate play with us. It can be a terrifying sight, especially for those unfamiliar with wild canine body language, as she absolutely loves to pretend she’s going to put her mouth on you (though she never does) and hit you with her paws. Though we’ll need to work with her on safe and appropriate ways to play, we’re equally impressed with the inhibition she has already and have no doubt she’ll adjust quickly.
Though we’re devastated by the reality of Cody being abandoned by her owners (especially with no regard for whether Wild Spirit had the necessary resources to provide for her), we also recognize they could have been far less responsible in getting rid of her. She could have been killed, set free into the wild where she certainly would have died, abandoned at a shelter that wouldn’t have known how to care for her, or even sold on Craigslist. Any of those options likely would have resulted in her death.
Here, she will have qualified professionals caring for her for the rest of her life. She will have a large space to call her own, an appropriate diet, daily enrichment, annual vet care, and maybe even a companion one day. We’re so grateful we are able to give her that and so much more.
