DENVER (KCNC) - A miraculous recovery after a miraculous birth at a Denver-area animal shelter. The situation began when someone dropped off a chihuahua-mix at the shelter.
"She was trying very hard to have a puppy and it wasn't going well, so I brought her to the back and I yelled C-section!" Dr. Nicole Bartley recalled.
When Dr. Bartley got the puppy out, it wasn't breathing or moving. Figuring she'd lost the puppy, Dr. Bartley quickly turned her attention to the mother whose infections were considered life threatening.
Forty-five minutes later, something unexpected happened.
"One of the vet techs in the other room checking on the other dogs going to be spade yelled it's alive!," Dr. Bartley recalled. "The puppy had started to cry, and when she pulled back the blanket the puppy had been wrapped in, it was squirming and crying for its mamma."
Bartley and the other vet techs considered it a miracle, so that's what they named the puppy. Bartley plans to nurse the puppy and its mother back to health for a few days before finding the pair a permanent home.
"It's just been absolutely wonderful. Then to have her here, it just brings you back the reason for the season all the way around," Bartley said.