Foley Meets a Dog Named Miracle

When there is a natural disaster like a hurricane, we angels get overwhelmed with prayers.  Sadly, we can't help everyone. The prayers arrive as relentlessly as the rain thundering down from the sky  We lose contact with the soul desperately seeking assistance, and a few minutes later, they are standing behind us newly arrived at the Bridge.   No one is upset about our failure. There isn't time. Now that they are angels, they try to answer another soul's prayers as we did theirs. 

Every angel worked around the clock during Hurricane Dorian.  I received the prayers of a dog who desperately needed saving.  He had hidden under an air conditioner in his living room when the storm hit.  The shabbily built structure could not stand up to the terrible winds. The house collapsed around the poor dog.  He was barking that he had survived. The air conditioner stopped the debris from landing on him. Sadly, there was an entire house on top of him.  He was impossible to see or hear. He would not be found until the fallen structure was removed, which would take weeks. He did not have weeks.  

The storm passed, and the search for fatalities had begun. I kept the prayer line open while frantically trying to enter the overtaxed rescuers’ thoughts and tell them to search the collapsed structure for a dog.  I flew over the house as a ghost. It certainly looked like nothing could have survived in the rubble of what had once been the dog's domicile. I could not blame the rescuers for not listening.

He barked less every day.  Sadly, I believed I would be seeing him at the Bridge soon.  He had no food or water and was suffering. It would be for the best. 

After a couple of days, I stopped getting his prayers.  I flew down to the wreckage but could not sense him. I returned to the Bridge and asked the other judges if a dog fitting his description had arrived.  No one could remember seeing him. 

 He was not among the mortals, nor was he on the immortal side.  I pictured him wasting away too weak to pray as he waited for the Bridge to call. One day I would encounter him, we would have bacon pie with Foleytinis, and he would share his story. 

One day this week, to my great surprise, I heard from him again.  The new prayers were not requesting help but giving thanks. I flew down and saw him at a vet's office. He was malnourished and dehydrated, but alive.  

He told me he had survived for weeks living on rainwater that had run down from an opening in the debris.  Meanwhile, Big Dog Rescue was flying a drone over the destroyed buildings that were unsafe for humans to search.   One of the operators saw something in that small opening. The drone practically flew into the space. The operator saw a dog slightly lift his head. The operator alerted the rescue team, and after four weeks under the debris, he was rescued.  

I told him it was remarkable that he survived without any assistance from the Angels.  “But you did help, Foley,” he said. “You put the thought of rescuing me in everyone’s head, and I was found.”  I wish I could take credit, but this dog survived on his own. I am very impressed with him.  

The humans gave him the fitting name of Miracle.   They are searching for his parents, but the country has been shattered, with people fleeing to other parts of the island or different countries.  They already have a list of people wanting to adopt him. 



Who doesn’t want a little Miracle in their lives?