Puppy miraculously found alive almost four weeks after being trapped by cyclone
A dog found trapped under the wreckage from Cyclone Dorian has been rescued after almost four weeks with no food or water.
In what rescuers described as a ‘miracle’, a drone with infrared technology sent to scour the area devastated by Cyclone Dorian, spotted a tiny patch of heat under piles of debris in Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas.
A Big Dog Ranch Rescue ground crew, led by volunteers, reached the spot on Friday morning (local time) and found a 1-year-old puppy pinned down by a heavy air-conditioning unit.
He was described as “starving, dehydrated, too weak to even whine”.
Before rescuers carefully removed the piles of rubbish from the puppy, he was given a can of dog food that he gulped down and was rushed to a vet hospital in critical condition.
The emaciated dog’s ribs were visible and he was in desperate need of lifesaving medical treatment.
Big Dog Ranch Rescue founder Lauree Simmons told WPTV the rescue crew told her about the puppy at 9:30am and just hours later, the puppy, now aptly named ‘Miracle’, had reached the vet hospital in Florida.
"They texted me and they said urgent, ‘We need a plane now’, we had a plane there within an hour," Ms Simmons said.
The young pup, according to Ms Simmons, is now recovering in luxury.
“Miracle is now enjoying a lazy Sunday full of love, water, and food,” she wrote on Facebook.
But the mixed breed dog still has a long road to recovery.
“He’s very weak and anaemic from about three weeks of surviving off rain water. He will need physical therapy and a lot of help and strength so he can fully walk again,” an updated post on the rescue’s page read.
At its peak the category-five storm ripped through the Bahamas, touching down on September 1, leaving 56 people dead and about 600 people missing.
Big Dog Ranch Rescue told CBS 2 Miracle was the 138th dog they had rescued from the Bahamas since the hurricane.
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