From digital life on msmbc.com

Beth-Andy Kohn Gresham’s photos, shared on Facebook, along with her callout for help, generated a huge response.

By Suzanne Choney

“PLASTIC CONTAINER IS STUCK OVER THIS BABY’S HEAD !!!! NEEDS IMMEDIATE HELP !!!!!!” read a frantic Facebook posting last Friday by Beth-Andy Kohn Gresham, rescuer of homeless and needy animals.

That container was only one part of Miracle’s miseries, Gresham would find out later. The young dog — estimated to be between 6 and 8 months old — had previously been hit by a car and also shot in her right ear, likely with a BB gun, according to a vet who is now treating Miracle.

Gresham, of Memphis, Tennessee, has a Facebook page filled with the photos of animals rescued and those needing homes. When Tracee Burton spotted the thin dog with its head trapped in the container, wandering in a wooded area off of Interstate 40, she stopped and tried to help it, but the frightened creature ran into the woods.

Burton called Gresham, who managed to get within 20 feet of the dog before it ran off again. On a work lunch break, Gresham came back to the site again. She reported on Facebook that she was:

… able to get this pic (it has been zoomed in) I am leaving jobsite now and going back by. Hoping it will be laying in same place and traffic noise will help me sneak up !! THIS BABY CAN NOT EAT OR DRINK with this container stuck !!! VERY THIN can see ribs !! Must be getting some air or would not have lasted this long today !! If ANYONE CAN HELP please let me know ASAP!!!

Hundreds of people responded with offers of help after Gresham posted the photo. “The animal loving community pulled together quickly,” she said on Facebook. “By early afternoon, the search began. We were disappointed that we were not able to locate her that night.” A Facebook effort was made to get a search group together for Saturday.

“Again we searched and searched and  NOTHING,” Gresham said on Facebook. “We  were ALL so SCARED for this poor baby, but no one would  give up !!”

But the effort and word-of-mouth-via-Facebook paid off. Even TV station WREG covered the story. Miracle was spotted — lured and trapped by animal rescue volunteer Chester Burns who, with the help of other volunteers, got the container off the dog. Gresham shared this 47-second video on Facebook right after that.

They took Miracle to Shelby Center Hospital for Animals where she was “bathed, ticks galore removed, given fluids, weighed in  at  28 lbs., (should be around 40-45 lbs.),” treated for fleas and worms, “then went home” with a foster dog parent, Gresham wrote on Facebook:

This sweet girl has had a ROUGH life so far! Full body x-rays were taken and it was determined she has recently been hit by a car. There was a fracture to her left pelvis and her lower jaw bone. It will be determined later, once she gains some weight and gets her strength back if it will bother her, and if surgery will needed. She also has a shallow socket where the head of the femur connects to her hip in the right pelvis area which appears to be a birth defect. They also discovered that she had been shot with a BB gun, a BB was removed from right ear … She is on antibiotics and pain meds for the procedure today to remove the BB and the pain for her hips.

Miracle will be fostered until the Memphis Humane Society “has room for her or until she is adopted,” Gresham says on Facebook. The dog, is an “amazing soul. She has endured more in her short life and she is still a SWEET, LOVING and a TRUSTING girl!”

Gresham urges those who want to help to contact the Humane Society to make donations in Miracle’s name:

“We didn’t fail her when she was in the woods alone, so let’s not fail her now, at a time she really needs us to heal and recover from this nightmare she has been living,” she wrote.

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