Nova Scotia

Miracle the dog recovering after getting trapped under moving car's bumper for 2 hours

A one-year-old dog that was hit by a car and caught under the front bumper of the moving vehicle outside Port Hawkesbury, N.S., for more than two hours is making a miraculously fast recovery.

1-year-old was hit outside Port Hawkesbury, N.S., in Cape Breton

Miracle is getting comfortable at her new foster home in Halifax. Video was shot by Terri Buckland.

9 years ago
Duration 0:39
After being hit by a car in Cape Breton, Miracle was stuck under the front bumper for two hours. She's made an amazingly fast recovery.

A one-year-old dog that was hit by a car and caught under the front bumper of the moving vehicle outside Port Hawkesbury, N.S., for more than two hours is making a miraculously fast recovery.

The dog has been named Miracle by her rescuers.

"I call her a lean, mean healing machine because she's doing so well," said Shelley Cunningham, president of Litters 'n Critters, a dog rescue society in Nova Scotia.

Cunningham says a man driving on the Trans-Canada Highway in Cape Breton hit the young terrier outside last Monday. He pulled over, but there was no dog in sight. 

He couldn't see her because Miracle was stuck under his front bumper. She stayed that way until he got to Glace Bay — about 200 kilometres away.

Miracle was stitched up by staff at Sydney's Veterinary Hospital and was later placed in a foster home in Halifax by non-profit society Litters 'n Critters. (Shelley Cunningham)

Cunningham says the man took her to the local SPCA and Miracle wound up at the Sydney Animal Hospital. 

"She had a lot of head trauma. There was a lot of swelling in her head and the blood vessels in her eyes were all burst. She was in pretty rough shape," Cunningham said.

"She has a multitude of soft tissue injuries, pretty well every soft tissue in her body is sore, but amazingly and miraculously, there's not one broken bone in that dog's body." 

The veterinary clinic contacted Litters 'n Critters for help after Miracle was patched up. The puppy was placed in a foster home and her condition started to improve immediately.

Cunningham said Monday morning that Miracle was already bounding around the living room of her foster home in Halifax.

"They sent us pictures of her healing, where her stitches are around her face, and she's healing amazingly," she said, adding that the dog doesn't seem to have any neurological damage. They'll be sending Miracle for tests in the next couple of weeks.

This Saturday, Litters 'n Critters will host what Cunningham calls a thank you event for those involved in the dog's rescue. It will be held at the Pet Valu store in Clayton Park between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. AT.

Anyone is invited, she says, to see Miracle with their own eyes.