'Miracle' puppy born in Aurora, surprising veterinarian who thought it had not survived

AURORA, Colo. - For nearly 45 minutes veterinarians thought a puppy was stillborn and tried to tend to the mother, when suddenly the new life began to move and cry.

Aurora Animal Shelter veterinarian Nicole Bartley wrote on the City of Aurora's Facebook page that she was preparing to spay three other dogs on Monday, when the dog in emergency labor was brought to the shelter's front desk. She determined that the unborn puppy was too large to fit through the mother's birth canal and rushed the dog into surgery for an emergency C-section.

"It was obvious the puppy had been stuck for a long time. There was a lot of infection and very little chance for the puppy," Bartley wrote. "However, we always try to save puppies and kittens born by C-section and the veterinary technicians went to work, but the puppy never breathed, never moved."

With the puppy unmoving, the veterinarian and technicians turned their attention back to the mother.

After nearly three-quarters of an hour of work, they were starting to wake the mother when they heard the newborn begin to cry from inside the blanket in which it was wrapped.

"It should not have been possible for that puppy to be alive that much later when we couldn't get it to respond right away," Bartley wrote.

Because of the miraculous circumstances surrounding the birth, the new puppy was named "Miracle."

Bartley also announced that the puppy and mother will be going into foster care.