The story of one dog’s unbelievable survival after being trapped under rubble for more than three weeks may have you believing in miracles.

Sometimes, the love of a good dog really is the best medicine.

For the past few weeks, Flavio Santos has been in a hospital in Brazil undergoing treatment for cancer. It’s been a trying time for him, no doubt, made worse by the fact he’d been missing someone dear to him back home.

That someone is his dog, named Agadir.

When nurses caring for Santos learned of this, they decided to arrange a special visit — not knowing, perhaps, just what a difference it would make.

The two friends were finally back together.

It was clearly an emotional experience for Santos, and Agadir too.

But, as it turns out, the impact of that visit ran deeper than meets the eye.

After Santos spent time with his dog, doctors noted a welcome change. Their patient’s overall outlook seemed to transform.

“I was surprised,” Dr. Rodrigo Tancredi told news outlet Globo. “He was conscious, oriented and talking.”

Tancredi went on to note that such visits from pets appear to have both psychological and physical benefits, resulting in an increased appetite and lower heart rate and blood pressure.

“We visibly noticed his improvement the other day,” Tancredi said. “The improvement occurred in a gradual way and remains.”

The improvement in Santos’ health has been so great, in fact, he and Agadir may be together again sooner than anyone would have guessed: “I talked about the possibility of him being discharged [from the hospital],” Tancredi said.

This is reportedly the first time a patient’s pet has been allowed to come in for a visit to this hospital, but given the proven positive effect, it hopefully won’t be the last.

Imagine being so passionate about a particular cause – and from such a young age – that you’d be willing to sacrifice much of your free time in order to get it off the ground. Well, that’s 12-year-old Darius Brown in a nutshell.

Incredibly, the preteen New Jersey native has his very own organisation, Beaux and Paws, which specialises in producing bow ties for shelter dogs so that they catch the eye of potential owners.

Darius’ passion for designing and creating things came about from a very early age. At the age of two, in fact, he was diagnosed with speech delay, comprehension delay, and a delay in fine motor skills, and it was due to this that his family felt the need to encourage a sense of creativity in the toddler.

And ultimately, it was from there that he drew his inspiration for entrepreneurial endeavours – well, that coupled with his love of animals.

Darius’ mother Joy Brown, 40, and sister Dazhai Brown-Shearz, 22, noticed something truly spectacular about Darius just four years ago. It was at this time that Dazhai was studying at cosmetology school – which was when she and Joy discovered the then-eight-year-old’s skill with the needle. Darius would help his sister by cutting fabrics, sewing and making hair ribbons – and it turned out that he was quite the creative genius.

Dogs are known for their faithfulness and loyalty and thus are one of the best pets to have. However, in spite of their wonderful traits, many of these animals seem to lack the love and affection that they rightfully deserve.

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, police officers were serving eviction notices in a neighborhood when they were notified by children about a caged dog. The cops found the dog outside an abandoned apartment; the sight of the helpless creature left them feeling appalled.

The dog, named Dice, was a 3-year-old pit bull mix who would’ve died if he hadn’t been found. The officers called animal control, and Dice was transported to a local shelter

A volunteer at the shelter snapped a few photos of the dog and sent it to Tracey Godin, co-founder of Feeling Fine Rescue in Loxahatchee, Florida.

“It took your breath away,” Tracey said. “I didn’t know how he was still alive. Tears immediately came to my face.”

Tracey, who was dismayed at the plight of the dog, told The Dodo, “The tenants moved out and left him in the backyard in a crate with no food or water.”

“The police, of course, asked the children how long the dog had been there, and they said they thought he’d been there a week or more,” she added.

Dice was clearly dehydrated and anemic. He could barely walk a few steps without falling, and his skull was visible; that indicated the amount of muscle mass he’d lost.

“We were in [the] parking lot at the vet, and when he took one step to get up on the sidewalk, he couldn’t hold his body weight up and just collapsed. I didn’t think he was going to live,” Tracey recalled.

Dice had probably been neglected for months.

“He was not fed properly for months,” Tracey said. “The last week would have just been the final deterioration.”

Dice weighed just 30 pounds (approx. 14 kg), whereas a normal pit bull of his age would weigh at least 65 pounds (approx. 29 kg).

“In my opinion, if he had been in that cage another day, he would not have made it,” Tracey revealed.

The very next day, Tracey and her daughter, Micaela, rushed to the shelter and decided to take Dice to the vet.

Dice was then moved to the Feeling Fine Rescue that Tracey and her daughter run from their home.

Under the watchful care of Tracey, the pooch began to make a speedy recovery.

Dice gained an amazing 10 pounds (approx. 5 kg) in the first week, and two weeks later was 50 pounds (approx. 23 kg). Within the third week, he was at his best, weighing 65 pounds (approx. 29 kg).

He also began to show signs of happiness and contentment once again.

Micaela told The Dodo, “It’s really incredible to see how a dog can go through so much at the hands of people, and … be immediately ready to love and trust new people.”

“We save a lot of dogs, and they all have stories, and they all come from such awful beginnings,” she added.

But the mother-daughter duo was really surprised with “how quick he was able to bounce back, and how gracefully he did it.”

They even referred to his transformation as a “miracle.”

Micaela also revealed that Dice had the most amazing personality. He’d been an adorable dog from the very minute they met him.

The saying “no pain, no gain” holds true in the case of Dice. All that suffering turned out for the better as he was then spotted by a family in late December 2018, who fell in love with him the moment they saw him.

The family came to visit Dice several times and even asked if they could do a meet-and-greet at their property with their two other dogs.

To their surprise, Dice not only gelled with the other dogs but also bonded with the children in the family.

Dice finally found his happy home where he would be under the care of a loving family. Not all dogs can recover as quickly as Dice.

His resilience is truly commendable, and the fact that he was able to make it through such a traumatic incident so quickly is something to marvel at.