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Miami Herald
Miami Herald
Lifestyle
Madeleine Marr

Someone left this puppy to freeze to death. Then two lives suddenly changed

She was left for dead.

A gray, blue-eyed pitbull puppy was found under the Seabreeze Bridge in Daytona Beach on Jan. 18 by Daytona Beach Police Department animal control officers.

A video shows the rescue effort by Officers James Lee and John Pearson.

Pearson places the trembling animal, which is wearing a blue collar, up to the heater. You can hear it whimpering and groaning.

The men take turns at holding the dog up to their bodies wrapped in a towel.

"I don't know how long he's been outside," says Lee, not realizing it was female. "He's freezing; we're trying to get him warm."

The puppy was taken to a local humane society and named River, because it was found in the Halifax River, according to the department's Facebook post.

The miracle pup was adopted by a fellow Daytona Beach officer, according to another FB post.

"This is the kind of update we love at DBPD," read the caption along with River looking healthy (and warm). "This beautiful, spunky puppy was nursed back to health at Halifax Humane Society. One DBPD officer kept visiting River while she recovered. That officer, District One's Kera Cantrell, fell in love with this little canine and the feeling was mutual! Officer Cantrell is now River's new Mom and these are two happy girls!"

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