"Miracle Dog" Gets Saved After Spending Four Days Trapped On A Frozen River Island

Miracle was later adopted by his rescuer ❤️

Damjan

• Published in Animal Stories
• July 27, 2021

A young dog, assumed to be about two years old, somehow ended up being stranded in the middle of an icy river. With freezing water all around him, no food, shelter, or means of escape, his odds of surviving this ordeal were pretty slim.

Luckily, he was spotted in time and gained a lot of attention on social media. And all it took was the right person to read the news. The fortunate pup was named Miracle after his miraculous rescue.

No one knows how the pup ended up there, but many assume that he was running away from coyotes. His four days on the Mud Island in the middle of the Detroit River were filled with dogging eagles and coyotes and fighting off the cold. He even fell into the freezing river once but managed to pull up.

Finally, help arrived from the Canadian side of the border. Jude Mead from J&J Marine Ltd. headed out on his airboat. He reached the Mud Island and found the pup.

“I truly believed Miracle stayed on the open ice, waiting for someone to see him,” wrote Kim Craig, a WXYZ reporter. “He was hungry, freezing, and wanted help. And yesterday, he got it.”

But the little Miracle’s fight wasn’t over yet. Dr. Lucretia Greear from the Woodhaven Animal Hospital examined him and found that he suffered frostbites on his paws, was severely dehydrated, and had pancreatitis.

“I feel like what saved him out there is the fact that he wasn’t groomed and his coat was pelted,” Lucretia says. “He had literally like a layer of insulation that protected him from the water and the ice and it protected him from freezing to death — but he’s a miracle.”

Thankfully, after receiving proper care, Miracle was well on his way to full recovery. “It’s pretty amazing,” Lucretia said. “It definitely wasn’t his time. He’s a miracle walking.”

After taking care of the poor animal, people started looking for the owner. Since he had no collar or microchip, they were unable to locate the family. The next logical step was putting him up for adoption.

Friends of the River Rouge Animal Shelter helped with the application process. So many people wanted to give him a warm and loving home, but the shelter staff decided to let his rescuer adopt him.

“Today the little Miracle dog … who defied ALL THE ODDS will now live happily ever after with the man who saved his life,” the shelter staff wrote on its Facebook page. “Miracle could not ASK for a better or more ideal family to love him!”

Miracle at his new home

The whole story has a much deeper meaning, as one Facebook user wrote: “Thank you to Miracle himself for bringing so many people together and reminding all of us to never give up hope for there’s a fighting spirit in all of us, a Miracle in each of you.” And we couldn’t agree more.

Damjan