When police descended on a Whatcom County house to seize 50 neglected animals, the hoarders living inside were issued a strict directive as their dogs, cats, ducklings, and exotic pheasants were being carted away.  

No more animals.

But hoarders have a 100 percent rate of recidivism. They always re-offend. And when these ones heard the sheriff’s department was coming back to check up on them, they knew they were in trouble.

They had already obtained a mother dog and her three six-week-old puppies. Now they had to dispose of the evidence.

On another property belonging to the hoarders, police discovered the ditched pet carriers in a bramble patch. Inside were four tiny bodies. Their throats had been slit, and they had been abandoned there to bleed to death.

For two days, little Miracle had laid there clinging to life beside her dead mother in the bloodied plastic carrier.

Miracle made a full recovery at Whatcom Humane Society, where outreach director Laura Clark speculates that she might have survived because she was last in line. If so, the blade was likely dull by the time the killers reached her.

Miracle — who is called Mira for short — made a full recovery, and shows her spunky side by tearing around the grass like she’s airborne.

Probably because of her traumatic experiences, she doesn’t like to be crated. The only physical remnant of her ordeal is the occasional cough from damage sustained to her trachea. She loves people and other dogs, especially an English Labrador named Kobe who lives next door.

 

After she was rescued, Miracle recovered from her ordeal at the Whatcom Humane Society.

 

Miracle is a little pup with big-dog confidence. Zachary isn’t phased by her bravado.

 

Carreen Maloney can be contacted at carreen@fuzzytown.com