Dog named Lazarus survives euthanasia attempt

Lazarus, a mixed-breed dog who survived a euthanasia attempt and a car accident, sits in the sun at its new home in Helena, Ala., on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014. Turned in to an animal shelter by its owner, a volunteer found the dog alive in the shelter the morning after it was injected with deadly chemicals. Jane Holston adopted the dog from Two by Two Animal Rescue, which named him Lazarus after the man the Bible says Jesus raised from the dead. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)

OZARK, Alabama — Animal control officer Wanda Snell knows what she saw: A veterinarian injected the black-and-brown mixed-breed dog with a deadly chemical, seeking to euthanize the 4-year-old dog no one had adopted. The animal moved some and then faded.

What Snell can’t explain is how the dog rebounded overnight, since going on to full recovery.

Weeks after the Sept. 10 injection, the dog now lives with a family in a suburb of the Alabama city of Birmingham, where he romps and plays with another rescue dog. His survival seemed all the more surprising since the same dog previously had been struck and injured by a car and infested with dangerous heartworms.

A rescue worker has named the dog “Lazarus” after the biblical character resuscitated by Jesus.