Looking at Miracle’s sweet face today, one might never suspect the challenges she’s had to overcome. But Miracle is a fighter.

On a steamy morning in June, a woman in rural Texas noticed a trash bag at the end of her gravel driveway. As she moved closer, she found a puppy sprawled on the bag, dirty gauze wrapped around a deep leg wound.

The woman immediately posted on Facebook for help. Sasha Aghili, founder of Jack Jack’s Pack Street Dog Rescue, saw the post with a photo of the dog, leg swollen and eyes pleading. Aghili lived four hours away but knew she had to help.

The woman could tell the dog’s condition was critical, so she offered to meet Aghili halfway. When they met up, the injured puppy lay motionless in the woman’s back seat.

“Her little gums were white and she was very cold,” Aghili told.“We were very afraid that she wasn’t going to make it.”

The Jack Jack’s Pack team gently transferred the dog, later named Miracle, into their vehicle and rushed to Mercy Veterinary Hospital in Leander, Texas. Aghili remembers petting Miracle through tears in the back seat, reassuring her that they were getting help. Miracle could only glance at Aghili with glassy eyes.

“She never growled,” Aghili said. “She never showed her teeth. And if you can imagine the kind of pain she was in … all she did was just look at me and whimper.”

At the hospital, the vet team cleaned Miracle’s wound. Anemic and in septic shock, she needed a blood transfusion and IV antibiotics. Aghili held her breath as the team went to work. Then, she saw a tiny tail wag.

“You started seeing a puppy,” Aghili said.

Unfortunately, Miracle wasn’t out of the woods yet. The damage to her leg was so severe, she would need it amputated. Once she stabilized, less than 24 hours after she arrived, Miracle went into surgery.Aghili worried how Miracle, who was only a few months old, would handle life with three legs. After such intense trauma, and being treated so poorly, how would Miracle react to people and a new environment?

It turned out Miracle was stronger than anyone predicted.

Just a few hours after her amputation, Miracle surprised everyone by hopping around the hospital, a proud smile on her face.

“As soon as we let her out, she was like, ‘OK, this is what I do,’” Aghili said. “She just took to the three legs.”

Even in a cone, Miracle showed everyone how happy she was to be alive, moving around and chasing toys. She spent the next week in the hospital for monitoring, where nurses doted on her and witnessed her incredible transformation from a puppy on the verge of death to a bouncy, goofy girl who just wanted to love and be loved.

Aghili said Miracle had a profound effect on everyone who worked with her. Though vet and rescue staff have seen difficult cases before, something about Miracle moved them.

“All the doctors, all the techs, all the volunteers became so attached to her,” Aghili said. “Her sweetness and everything she has been through, it just would bring us all to tears.”

One nurse in particular had such a blast getting to know Miracle that she offered to foster the dog when Miracle’s hospital stay ended. In foster care, Miracle tasted pup cups, played fetch and bonded with her foster mom’s husky.

“You would never know she dealt with … anything traumatic,” Aghili said. “She’s a happy girl. She loves people. She loves dogs. She loves everybody and everything.”

Aghili has rescued more than 2,000 animals in her time with Jack Jack’s Pack. Through it all, she’s never seen such a trusting, joyful dog, who had every right to be angry with people. Yet, Miracle continues to embrace three-legged life.

In fact, she’s done so well at her temporary home, her foster mom is in the process of adopting Miracle, making her an official member of the family.

“She was so resilient,” Aghili said, still in awe. “The rebound has been amazing.”