In France on Tuesday, on a pedestrian path next to a lake, a man walked by the right place at the right time. He saw the ground move. Suspicious, he found a shovel and started digging. He found a dog.
A Jack Russel Terrier, buried alive. And poisoned — that’s why the ground was moving. Not because the dog was trying to escape, but because he was convulsing.
“He was completely cold, he was barely breathing,” said veterinarian Philippe Michon, who later cared for the dog.
He was “flat as a pancake,” said Sabrina Zamora, president of an animal association in Charleville-Mezieres.
The man dug the dog up and called authorities. Firefighters rushed the dog to the vet. The vet warmed the dog, who was covered in dirt, with hot-water bottles. According to the New York Daily News, the dog was so cold “his veins had collapsed,” and it was difficult to find a vein to hydrate the dog. But the vet eventually did. And a day later, the dog was up and around.
“It’s extraordinary. We only see this in TV movies,” said the vet. “He came back to life and without a scratch. It’s rather miraculous.”
Indeed it is. The events that led to the dog being saved are hard to believe. Imagine: The dying, poisoned dog convulsed at the very moment a passerby was looking in that direction, at the ground. The ground must have moved just enough to catch the man’s eye. The man did not give up on the dog, nor did the firefighters, nor did the vet — the way someone else did.
The dog is named Ethan, according to the microchip the vet found after the ordeal. His owner had given him away, or so he says. The police have been brought in, and if they give the case a whit of attention, it shouldn’t take long to discover what really happened to poor Ethan. Let’s hope they do.
