Strays and Ferals - The Story of Miracle

 

 

 

She had quite a few names through the many months when she was eluding capture, but in the end Shirley Powell gave her the name Miracle, and that name seemed to express how we all felt about her. Miracle was a stray dog that began hanging around the guardhouse at Bald Mountain Resort this summer. She was willing to take food as long as people kept their distance, and she began to sleep close to the guardhouse on the night shift. Pam Keith was her most determined guardian. Pam sought help in every direction. An Animal control trap failed to catch her. Two different trapping schemes of the Humane Society failed to work. Twice she was caught inside the Miniature Golf Course but managed to go over the fence. In the final analysis, it was her puppies who caught her - and a day and night of heavy rain.

Through the months Pam kept us informed about Miracle’s condition - maybe in heat, definitely in heat, maybe pregnant, definitely pregnant. The men at the guardhouse had the closest observations and they say Miracle gave birth late Christmas Eve or early Christmas Day. By New Year’s Day they knew that Miracle’s puppies were in a fox den on a precipitous slope just past the old cemetery in the Bald Mountain Resort Community. And the dog was becoming much more accepting of close handouts and even a pat on the head.

A new plan was being contrived to catch Miracle when she came for food since we knew where her pups were hidden and could retrieve them right after we caught her. Then on January 7th it began to rain, and it rained hard all day and all night. As the next morning cleared, people out walking discovered puppies with their eyes not yet opened scattered among the tombstones in the cemetery. Some Housekeeping staff picked them up - six in all - and placed them on a jacket inside the Housekeeping office. The guardhouse called Pam for help and she then placed them in a box with soft towels and brought the pups to the guardhouse for safe keeping. Although our plan was reversed, we thought now that we had her puppies, we would be able to get Miracle to come to us.

It was about an hour before sunset, with the wind blowing and temperatures falling, when we met Pam at the guardhouse. We had brought a large cage borrowed from Rutherford Veterinary Hospital, and the plan now was to put the box of puppies into the back part of the cage and to pull the door shut when Miracle went in to her babies. The problem was that Miracle had not even come close all day. When the men saw her from a distance, she had growled at them. Without taking time to set up the large cage, Pam and Helen started out toward the cemetery to look for Miracle while Shirley stayed in the guardhouse to help the men bottle feed the six puppies. The men all learned something new that evening as Shirley taught them how to help Puppies eliminate after they get their tummies full! Through the cemetery and to the edge of the steep hill we looked and called. Pam spotted Miracle half way down the slope, nestled under mountain laurel bushes. It took a few moments to dawn on us that she had a puppy with her - no, maybe two, - maybe three. Because of the puppies she did not run. Because of the puppies she remained under that bush, growling softly but not willing to escape the approaching humans as she had always done before. Speaking softly, Helen shimmied down to the laurel bush in a sitting position and offered Miracle a biscuit. She stopped growling and took the treat. Helen just sat there with her while Pam went back to the guardhouse to get Shirley. She didn’t hear Helen softly call out to her - There are five puppies here! Helen watched the sun setting over Lake Lure from her perch among the laurels and told Miracle over and over again what a good mother she was and how beautiful her babies were!

Pam and Shirley brought the box with just two of the puppies, hoping Miracle would come to them when she heard them. She did get very agitated but would not move from her “nest” of puppies under the laurel. So Helen slipped a lanyard leash/collar, open into a very large loop, over her head and drew it in around her neck. Although all of us felt like we were in the midst of an amazing event -miracle, if you will - the most amazing happened now. Miracle allowed Helen to take her puppies, one at a time, and put them into the box Shirley had brought down the slope. It was the kind of moment that sears itself into memory forever. Once her puppies were gone we felt sure she would get up and come by leash to follow the box. But that was not the case. In the end, Helen made a muzzle out of part of the leash and scooped her up and carried her. Pam and Shirley had gone on ahead with the box of puppies. It was dark when Helen came through the cemetery carrying Miracle to where Mike Maziarka waited with his truck, red lights flashing. He drove us all to the home of John and Jenny Wizniewski where Miracle and her puppies were invited to spend their first night of real safety on a carpet in an enclosed garage. The next day Jenny drove while Pam, Shirley, and Helen photographed each puppy and made a list of them with names and identifying characteristics. Miracle sat calmly between Helen and Shirley, nursing first one and then another puppy after they had had their mug shots made. By the time we reached Rutherford Veterinary Hospital, the staff was ready for us. Dr. Michelle Toms-Greene had already promised Miracle and her puppies a safe haven there if we were able to catch them, but we were all a little stunned when the number turned out to be ELEVEN!

Miracle and her puppies were housed at Rutherford Veterinary Hospital from January 8 to February 6 when the Christmas Day puppies reached their six week birthday. In one week’s time, all eleven puppies went to their new forever homes here in Rutherford County and Miracle herself left Rutherford Veterinary Hospital Monday, Feb. 16, with her new master. Miracle is doing great in her new home - has the run of the house and is enjoying playing with stuffed toys. She travels to and from work with her owner. They run around outside together. She seems very happy, but she is still shy with strangers and definitely shows signs of having been abused both physically and verbally.

During the time they were housed at Rutherford Veterinary Hospital, Miracle and her pups received a constant flow of visitors, so we owe the vets and their staff an added thank you for graciously welcoming a flood of uninvited guests! We love Happy Endings!