Small Miracles Cat & Dog Rescue

I got a fabulous dog from Small Miracles who was 1 year old at the time. She came from West Virginia. Those hill people love to let their unfixed dogs run wild. The ladies saved her from being put dow in a kill shelter in just 2 days. My Maggie looks like a 35 lb. beautiful Golden Retriever. I have had her for 1 year now and she is a total delight. She loves children, dogs and especially me. She is very smart and obedient. All A’s in the health dept. I got a DNA test done on her recently, to my surprise: Mom-​Australian Shepherd/​Chow-​Chow Mix; Dad-​Boxer/​Rotweiler Mix. What more could I ask for? Love Small Miracles, the dog part (never been in cat half) is VERY CLEAN and organized with hard working volunteers. The were very kind and accommodating to us. I would highly recommend this rescue!!!

I have mixed feelings about Small Miracles. I give them a lot of credit for trying to do wonderful things for animals that need help. And I can’t say definitively that our cat (adopted from Small Miracles 3 years ago) has FIP — but I suspect she does. This is all circumstantial so please take that into consideration. Here’s the story:
We already had one cat — Teddy, a male that was about 13 years old. But we decided to adopt a 3 month old kitten from Small Miracles 3 years ago — we named her Spidey. Obviously, she had already had all of her vaccinations. The facility smelled very bad. It wasn’t horrible enough to be condemned. But definitely not sanitary.
From the moment we got her home, Spidey had the foulest, most horrible diarrhea you could imagine (horrible smell, mucous and blood). And she was having accidents in the house (expected with a new kitten). And, oddly, she had no voice (dysphonia). She’d do the talkative «meoooooow» gesture but nothing but a barely audible squeak would come out.
I took her to the vet and she checked out fine. He said some kitties just don’t get their voice until they’re older and «we don’t know why». Regarding the diarrhea, we tried multiple courses of antibiotics with no improvement. I switched her to a grain free diet — didn’t help. We spent the next 18 months spending lots of money on antibiotics and multiple stool tests (including Tritrichomonas foetus) which were all negative. The only next step would be a biopsy to test for IBD. We decided to delay and not do that yet. Her diarrhea was still horrible. She would literally «squirt» small amounts from the impact of jumping up or down onto things. As you can imagine, this has not been pleasant!
I spent the next year trying to eliminate possible food allergies. We finally found ONE food (Blue buffalo limited ingredient) that greatly improved the problem (but she’s still a little off). With her problem pretty much under control, I gave up trying to figure out if there was anything seriously wrong. Meanwhile, my other cat (Teddy) had slowly began to lose weight…
Fast forward to now. We just had to euthanize Teddy last month due to an illness that I now believe was FIP (unfortunately, I did not have an autopsy done). I never thought I’d suspect something like FIP. But, after obsessing and adding up all of the indicators, I believe this is what it was. He was a textbook case but none of the vets could figure it out — cloudy eye, lack of appetite, one seizure, gradual weight loss, excessive thirst and urination (not attributable to diabetes). And in the month before we lost him — no appetite (refusal to eat or drink), severe uveitis, anemia, eye infection, jaundice, low lymphocytes, high neutrophils, inflammation of the ears, skin lesions, mildly thickened intestines AND towards the end he LOST HIS VOICE.
By the time we lost him, he was 16 years old. I know that’s older for cat, but I believe we could have had him a few years longer if not for this mystery illness. Apparently FIP is usually deadly in kittens (but a few do survive it and continue to be carriers). And, in older cats, it tends to be more of a slow, subtle progression over months or a few years. This all fits our case. And I have since learned that the vaccination for FIP offers little protection — it’s almost pointless to get it. So if you think getting a kitten from a rescue is safe just because it’s been vaccinated, THINK AGAIN. If I had it to do all over again, I would adopt a stray, or maybe from a friend.
One other small bit of info to consider — every vet and website says the coronavirus (that causes FIP) is not a cross-​species virus. However, there is a documented «recombinant» strain of feline and canine coronavirus out there. The paper I read says «it remains to be determined» if it can mutate and cause deadly FIP or other disease. Unfortunately, my understanding is it’s not easy to test for coronavirus or FIP.
Lastly, I’d like to reiterate my mixed feelings here and again say that my cat hasn’t been diagnosed with coronavirus or FIP (yet). So this is purely circumstantial (you be the judge). My heart goes out to all of the animals that need a home. But please be a responsible owner and keep the risks in mind when you adopt. You ARE putting your other pets at risk when you adopt from a rescue. My personal feeling is an adoption from a rescue should only be considered when there aren’t other pets in the home. After 6 months or so with NO health issues, then it’s safe to adopt other pets.

We adopted 3 kittens from small miracles, they quickly became members of our family. Unfortunately we had to move out of state a year later and were not allowed to have pets. According to our adoption contract, we were required to bring the cats back to the shelter. When I called to arrange a drop off, I was told we couldn’t take them back because there was some kind of URI going around and ALL of the cats were sick. We exhausted all of our options so we had to leave them with small miracles. Staff was nasty and not understanding at all. It was hard enough for us to give them up without dealing with the unfriendly staff. The next day I got a phone call saying they were going to be sent to animal control to be euthanized because they were «not nice». Anyone who has cats should understand that they were scared, and need time to adjust from being away from home.
They say they are a «no kill shelter» but this is BS. Absolutely heart broken that they broke their end of the contract. Avoid this place like the plague. Killers!

I just adopted a dog back in August, and I must say how happy I have been with the process and how friendly everyone was.
When I took him to my Regular Vet, they were quite impressed with how they had taken care of everything for me.
This is the 2^nd pet I have rescued from Small Miracles and would recommend them to everyone.

My neighbors had an outdoor cat that they abandoned when they moved. It turns out she was pregnant so my husband and I moved her into our garage until she gave birth and kept her and her kittens until they were nine weeks old. We were absolutely in love with mama kitty and her five kittens but we already had a zoo of our own. We fostered the kitty family until they were old enough to go to Small Miracles for adoption. Being a retired veterinary technician I am very aware of standards of care and this rescue goes above and beyond. I stayed with them for an hour or so as I talked with some of the people working at the shelter and I was very happy and comfortable with how they handled my little kitty minions. That being said, any rescue is stretched to it’s financial limits and capacity at any given time. Things aren’t perfect in the rescue world b/​c there are so many that need rescue but this place does the absolute best with what they have.

I adopted my beautiful mutt from SM and had an excellent experience. I got a great dog that was in good health. There were a lot of dogs at the shelter that I would consider highly desirable — young, friendly, & healthy. The facility was clean and the people working there were helpful.

We adopted a dog here and throughout the entire ordeal we regretted that our dog had to go through this place. Turns out the dog was extremely sick and this place just left meds on their doorstep for us to give him with no instructions. Our vet said they caused ulcers in the dogs throat and he has fluid in his lungs. One month after this our vet and our family got this dog back to one amazing pooch. Will never go back, my vet even said the same. This shelter should be shut down.