Driving along a quiet country road in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, Liz Heatherly noticed something moving along the shoulder. At first, she couldn’t quite tell what it was. But as her eyes adjusted, her heart dropped.
A tiny black puppy — no more than 10 weeks old — was hobbling down the road, his fur crawling with fleas and ticks. Most shocking of all, a tight plastic zip tie was cinched cruelly around his muzzle.
Heatherly didn’t hesitate. She pulled into the nearest driveway, grabbed her mom and sister, and headed back on foot. But the frightened Lab-hound mix, spooked by cars, darted away and scrambled down into a 6-foot drainage ditch.
“We had to slide down on our bottoms to reach him,” Heatherly recalled. “My sister pulled us back up with a spare leash from the car.”
Once they had him in their arms, they snipped off the nylon tie. Underneath, the skin around his jaw was raw and scabbed from days of rubbing.
They rushed the puppy to Cleveland Park Animal Hospital, where veterinarian Dr. Bryant Phillips confirmed he was dehydrated, malnourished, and suffering from parasites.
Dr. Phillips estimated that the puppy had spent two to three days with his mouth clamped shut by the zip tie, according to Cleveland Park Animal Hospital.
The vet warned Heatherly that the damage to the hair follicles on the dog’s muzzle could be permanent, and, sure enough, as the scabs healed, a hairless white line appeared around the puppy’s mouth.
Heatherly named him Norman. The white, hairless line circling his muzzle became a silent reminder of what he had survived.
Still, she hesitated. Her 4-year-old rescue dog, Jackson, had endured abuse before she adopted him and didn’t usually get along with other dogs. She wasn’t sure adding a second pup would work.
But when she brought Norman home, Jackson surprised her.
“When I walked into the backyard and Norman whimpered, Jackson jumped up and licked him, like he was saying, ‘It’s going to be OK,’” Heatherly said.
From that moment, Jackson became Norman’s protector and playmate. The once-timid puppy turned into a bundle of energy — chasing squeaky toys, tripping over his long legs, and flopping into the sun for belly-up naps.
“He’s so resilient,” Heatherly said. “I thought he’d be fearful, especially of people touching his mouth, but he has no trust issues at all. He’s just pure joy in a furry package.”
Two weeks later, Norman’s scar is still visible, but small tufts of hair are starting to grow back — something the vet wasn’t sure would happen. Heatherly calls him her “little miracle,” and she means it.
“He’s goofy, he’s happy, and he’s ours,” she said. “I wouldn’t change him for the world.”
To continue following Norman's healing journey, check out his Instagram.
