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I was looking for a kitten to keep my rescued kitten company, and one of my students said, "I have a kitten. My dad dug it out of our walk." She called her dad, and he met me at the school at the end of the day with a towel around the saddest little kitten I had ever seen.

PHOTO: DAWN BARBOZA

He said his neighbor heard it crying and wasn't able to find it. They found it inside the wall between the two houses. It was the only one still alive. He believed that the mother had been hit earlier in the week by a car, and he didn't know where her kittens were.

As soon as I saw this little guy, I knew I had to get him to a vet. My student asked what I was going to name him, and her dad said at that time, "It's just a miracle he was even alive." That is how Miracle came to be.

I rushed to Animal Samaritans. They weren't able to see me, but they wanted the vet tech to take a look at him. They took him into the back. When they came out, they said I needed to bring him in first appointment in the morning. They tried cleaning his eyes the best they could and told me to keep them moist.

PHOTO: DAWN BARBOZA

As they were trying to find me an appointment, the technician had talked to the vet and told him how bad he was. The vet took the kitten back and saw him immediately. He gave me some drops to put in his eyes to try and keep them clean and moist.

I took him home, and he was so tiny compared to my other kitten, I had to keep them separate. Miracle just stayed on my chest for the first night. By the next day, his eyes actually started to look worse, which I didn't think could even be possible, so I took him to another vet. They tried cleaning his eyes but said the infection went so far down into the eye socket that all the flesh was dead. However, they gave me oral antibiotics and told me to keep putting the drops in.

PHOTO: DAWN BARBOZA

They weighed him, and he was 7.6 ounces, Because of his teeth, they estimated that he was over 8-weeks-old. My other kitten was barely on solid wet food. I had to bottle feed him, and he overshadowed the new guy.

Miracle slowly started to explore, play and move around. His eyes started clearing up, and he started playing with the other kitten. Then he started thriving. His eyes were cleared of the infection, but he was missing a lot of fur. We were worried that he would not have full eyesight and that the fur might not grow back.

Unfortunately, without warning or cause, the first kitten just didn't wake up one morning. Failure to thrive was the determined factor, but Miracle was determined to keep going. We have two dogs that completely adopted him and became his newest buddies.

PHOTO: DAWN BARBOZA

Today I wonder if he thinks he is a dog...

Story submitted by Dawn Barboza.

This story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Share your very own rescue story here!