When the volunteers and I first began managing the St. John Humane Society Animal Shelter in 1992, our assets were as follows...my husband's old Ford Taurus, a couple leashes, $22.00 in our checking account and 60 hopelessly homeless dogs.

One morning as we were all scurrying around feeding and cleaning, a city worker approached our gate. With tears in his eyes, he begged us to follow him to a nearby trash dumpster.

As we neared the pungent smelling dumpster, we could make out the image of a tiny fur ball protruding from the top!

Since my 14 year old son was the tallest of the group, he gently lifted the grimy, greasy ball of fur out of the dumpster... Immediately, we all knew that this little Akita mix pup was severely hurt.

The volunteers and I all looked at each other with more than a look of shock...it was more like a look of panic, we all knew that we only had $22.00 to our names. We also knew that the $22.00 was supposed to feed our shelter animals for the next several days...

After a few seconds of silence, simultaneously, the ten of us began to dig in our pockets; searching for anything we could use to pay a veterinarian.

The search was futile but we decided to work out the money detail later... We drove to a local veterinarian and found that this little "fella" had been hit by a car and his pelvis was severely crushed.

We stood in silence...anticipating the worst news and suddenly the veterinarian spoke up. Dr. X told us that he could hospitalize the pup and try to save him. He didn't know if we could afford it though...he said it would cost $2.00.

I still remember the look on everyone's face when this dear man told us it would only cost $2.00! We would be able to "save" this "angel" AND feed our shelter "babes"! A miracle!

I don't remember how we ended up naming our "dumpster doggie" "Beethoven", but it doesn't really matter...he came back to live with us at the shelter after six weeks in the hospital.

Beethoven is still happily living with us, as he was never able to "walk like the other kids".

Every time I look at our Beethoven, I remember why I volunteer to help the homeless animals...a SMALL group of people saved a SMALL dog and managed to care for a SMALL animal shelter with a SMALL bank roll...and lots of SMALL miracles!

SMALL miracles make a difference...won't you consider making a SMALL miracle? Volunteer today!