TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan — Jovial grunting sounds met Tracy Mikowski as she entered the river otter holding area at The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, New York.

It was nearly 10 years to the day since Clinch Park Zoo closed its doors, and the former zookeeper was anxious for a reunion with an old friend. Squirt, the 15-year-old river otter Mikowski raised from a pup, scrambled to the front of her pen to greet her.

“With all that anticipation, it was emotional for me,” Mikowski said. “I didn’t get to go in and snuggle her up like we used to, but the little grunting noises that she made, I knew she recognized me.”

The river otter came to the zoo after she was found in a hay field at four or five weeks old, Mikowski said.

Squirt bonded with Mikowski’s Welsh Corgi — the two animals would play and swim together — and grew into a healthy otter. She wrote a children’s book, “Squirt the Otter,” which chronicles the animal’s journey. 

Mikowski is now the director of Haines Animal Rescue Kennel in Alaska, but she remembers her time at Clinch Park Zoo fondly. She cared for eagles, wolves, bears, cougars, elk and more, but she shared a special bond with Squirt.

The Traverse City Commission closed the zoo on Sept. 10, 2006, and Squirt became one of more than 40 animals Mikowski helped relocate. Mikowski took great care to find the best placement for every animal; eagles went to the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, wolves and bears went to the Minnesota Wildlife Science Center, and Canadian lynx sisters moved to Washington’s Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.

“They were my family,” Mikowski said.

She accompanied most of the animals on their journeys to their new homes and chartered a plane to make Squirt’s transition as stress-free for the animal as she could.

The Wild Center Curator Leah Valerio welcomed Squirt to the center’s Otter Falls exhibit, which includes an 8,000-gallon pool and a holding area with more swimming holes, hammocks and toys. She sends Mikowski updates often and photos so she can stay connected with Squirt.

“It was obvious to me in the very beginning when I first started talking to Tracy that she really cared about Squirt a lot,” Valerio said. “I know what it means to have that kind of connection with an animal.”

Mikowski said she experienced closure with the other zoo animals she had to relocate, but she wanted to see Squirt once more in person. Fifteen is old for a river otter — they wouldn’t live that long in the wild, Mikowski said.

“The thought of not ever seeing her again just didn’t sit right,” she said. “We decided to go for it.”

Mikowski and her son flew to Burlington, Vermont, and drove nearly three hours to The Wild Center in the Adirondacks. It was a brief and emotional reunion — Mikowski couldn’t help but cry — but it was just what she needed.

“I left and I was happy, and she’s happy and she’s done well there,” Mikowski said. “That was worth going back for.”

Squirt is a big draw for the center, which houses three other otters at its exhibit. Valerio said she has met several families from Traverse City who visit the center and ask specifically for Squirt.

They may recognize the spunky otter from Mikowski’s children’s book. Mikowski wants to put together a pictorial history of the Clinch Park Zoo and plans to pen more children’s books based on her favorite animals.

“There’s so many great stories from the zoo,” Mikowski said. “That’s sort of what I want to do now is share some of them.” 

Elms writes for The Record-Eagle in Traverse City, Michigan.