NEWARK, N.J. — Unnamed and unwanted, the young beagle mix was left anonymously in a drop box outside an Alabama pound. His life was supposed to end in a gas chamber.
Instead, the young stray emerged frightened but unscathed, wagging his tail. Now, he’s being hailed as a miracle dog, given the name Daniel after the biblical figure who survived the lion’s den.
And he has a fresh start in New Jersey, where a rescue group hopes to find him a good home.
Only three animals have survived the gas chamber at the Animal Control facility in Florence, Ala., in the past 12 years.
“Maybe God just had a better plan for this one,” said city spokesman Phil Stevenson.
No one is sure why Daniel survived. “It may be that his breathing was shallow because of a cold or something,” Stevenson said.
Daniel’s tail never stopped wagging as he stepped off a plane at a New Jersey airport, where he was flown Wednesday by the nonprofit Eleventh Hour Rescue group and placed with volunteer Jill Pavlik until he can be adopted.
“He’s absolutely fabulous,” Pavlik said. “He walked in the house like he had always lived there. He’s very sweet, happy and outgoing.”
Linda Schiller, the shelter’s founder and president, said the facility has already received about 100 applications from people around the country seeking to adopt Daniel.
