Russo European Laika

You'd never know it by looking at Miracle now, but just over a year ago this dog was found in a desert wash, where he'd been left for dead. He had been so severely beaten that there was no way of even knowing what breed he was. I was out hiking in the southern Arizona desert with my partner when we ran across what we thought was an old piece of carpet.

As we got closer, we thought it was a carcass of some kind, maybe a skunk. But when we got right up on it we could see that it was a dog and still alive, just barely. We wrapped made a litter of a sleeping bag and gently lifted him up and carried him back to the truck. We headed back into Tucson straight to my vet's office.

The dog we'd found was in a life-threatening crisis. In addition to the horrible beating, the intense Arizona sun had depleted him of vital fluids. There was hope, but the vet wanted us to know the odds were not good. He had veterinary students apprenticing for the summer, and they formed a team that worked for nearly three hours to stabilize and treat the animal. Out in the waiting room, we decided that if he survived, we'd call him Miracle and adopt him as our own. He survived the surgery, but healing was a slow process. We each visited him regularly while he healed both mentally and physically. Two months later, the vet called and said we could come and get our dog. By then, he'd been identified as a Russo European Laika and we'd learned all we could about this wonderful breed. He is really a terrific dog, and we both feel so fortunate that we came along when we did out there in the desert.

I would love to know what happened to him, although I never want to know what kind of person who would abuse an animal and leave it to die. There are no penalties great enough to punish someone for an act like that.