Putting an animal to sleep may be the most difficult thing a pet owner will ever have to do, but sometimes it’s necessary. When a pet is aging or ailing, a vet will offer owners their opinion on the animal’s outlook and pain level. So rather than having the animal continue to suffer needlessly, they’re given a dose of pentobarbital, a seizure medication that causes the heart and brain functions to shut down within minutes. But what happens when you euthanize an animal and it comes back to life minutes later? It sounds like a plot from “Pet Sematary,” but it actually happened!Someone was clearly watching over an adorable puppy named Rudolph back in January. The pup was living at an Oklahoma animal shelter and his odds of finding a forever home were not looking good.
The shelter Rudolph was in was extremely overcrowded with stray dogs and the staff there made the tough decision of putting him to sleep. But the end of this pup’s life was really only the beginning.
Minutes after the veterinarian administered the drugs that stopped his heart and brain functions, Rudolph came back to life! Staff members were stunned when they walked into the room and found the pup wagging his tail.
The staff figured that there must have been a reason for Rudolph’s resurrection, so they sent him to King’s Harvest Pet Rescue No Kill Shelter in Davenport, Iowa, where he could continue to live his second chance.
They also received a sea of adoption applications. People were lining up at the shelter’s door and even braced the cold in order to see the sweet-faced pup in the hopes of becoming Rudolph’s new owners.
People drove far and wide for Rudolph. In fact, Jacob Hommer drove from Des Moines on a mission. He was hoping to give Rudolph to a fellow combat veteran in Colorado, who undoubtedly knew all about second chances.
Then moments after the news story aired on the Local 4 News station, reporters announced that someone adopted Rudolph. We don’t know whether it was Hommer or some other lucky person, but at least the pooch got a happy ending after all.
With the various applications King’s Harvest Animal Shelter received, staff members like Rochelle Dougall, the shelter’s assistant director, hope others will open their homes to other pooches in need.
This miraculous dog touched so many hearts that the shelter was able to clear a lot of their dog kennels through adoptions. If this amazing story doesn’t inspire you to adopt a pet today, we don’t know what will.
However, there are lots of dogs in shelters where euthanasia is the only option, but not because the pooches are sick or elderly. They’re euthanized because of overcrowding. So please consider adopting a pet today.
