A woman brought in her pet sugar glider to Coston's office after the sugar glider's tail appeared to be broken. Coston agreed that it was and told the sugar glider's owner that the tail would have to come off, as the animal was so active the tail would have no time to heal. Coston completed the surgery successfully, then removed the anesthetic mask from the face of the sugar glider, Perky. "I... watched for the respiratory movements of his chest wall," Coston wrote. "There were none. I felt a cold sweat pop up on my face." Coston gave the sugar glider mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. "With a wave of relief, I felt Perky's body stiffen and his legs give a quick jerk," he wrote. "How that animal went from dead to running around the treatment room in less than ten seconds, I will never know. But before I knew it, he had jumped from my hands onto the surgery table and then climbed the stainless-steel grate covering the sink. I had to throw a towel over him like a fishnet to gain enough control to place him back in his carrier."
