Animal control officers remove Suzie, a female poodle mix, from under a car's front grille after a 11-mile ride from Taunton, Mass., to East Providence, R.I., on Sept. 20.
The driver of a Toyota Camry traveling between Massachusetts and Rhode Island picked up an unexpected passenger late last month, ABC News reported.
While cruising at about 50 mph on Route 44 in Taunton, Mass. on Sept. 20, the driver noticed a white poodle-bichon mix run in front of the car, and he hit the brakes. But as the Taunton Daily Gazette reported, the driver neither felt nor saw anything to indicate he struck the dog, so he continued driving for about 11 miles into East Providence, R.I. — where another driver notified him at a stoplight that the dog was stuck in the sedan’s grille.
(MORE: Top 10 Heroic Animals)
“She was just holding on for dear life,” William Muggle, Animal Control supervisor in East Providence, told ABC. “She had paws gripped on the edge of the inside of the bumper.”
Upon being alerted the driver headed to the East Providence Police Department. Police officers and animal control workers took the dog, named Suzie, to East Bay Animal Hospital for stabilization. Suzie later arrived at Bay State Emergency Clinic, where she spent the night, Muggle told the Gazette. ABC reported the pooch sustained a tear in her bladder, a concussion and a missing tooth, but Muggle said the dog is “doing great.”
“On the way to the hospital she stood up in the animal control vehicle and I was really surprised by that,” Muggle told ABC. “I have definitely never seen anything like that before.”
(MORE: WATCH: Hilarious, if Inaccurate, Explanation of Why Cats Are Better than Dogs)
On Tuesday, Suzie and her owners were reunited at an animal shelter after the family saw their pet’s photos on TV, the Gazette reported.
“My daughter loves the dog to death,” one of the owners, who asked to remain unidentified, told the Gazette. “Of course my wife loves the dog to death, too. But my daughter — she was wicked upset when we lost it and wicked happy when we found it.”
The owners, from Dighton, Mass., told the Gazette that Suzie escaped by digging under the fence, which she has done before in her six years with them despite the numerous cement blocks they place in their yard to prevent the burrowing.
“Dog digs like a madman,” the owner told the Gazette.
Suzie joins another pooch deemed a miracle dog this year. In August, a group of hikers rescued a wounded and abandoned German Shepherd, Missy, on a ridge connecting the 14,000-feet peaks Mt. Bierstadt and Mt. Evans, Good News Network reported.
Muggle told WPRI he was excited and happy the family found its pet. “This is definitely one of the luckiest dogs I’ve met,” he said.
(MORE: Miracle Dog Survives 40 Gun Shots and Being Buried Alive in Malta)