“It’s a miracle,” Jeanette Mellish said, out of breath when she rushed into the newspaper office. “Come and see.”

Molly, her sick dog that wandered away Thanksgiving night, was in the car, very much alive.

An alert reader had found the aging cocker spaniel described in last week’s newspaper and called them Friday morning. Jeanette and husband Gordon dropped everything and drove to get Molly.

When they stopped by the newspaper office on the way back home, Molly was reclining regally on a pillow in the back seat of the car.

Jeanette had feared the worst. She had searched the shrubs and woods around her home and up and down the street. Neighbors had been alerted. Old Molly, most had reasoned, had wandered off to die.

In the span of a few days, Jeanette has experienced the highs and lows of life. Last Tuesday her eyes brimmed with tears as she spoke of her feeble dog. On Friday morning she had the joy of a lottery winner.

“I’m going to take her home and give her some ravioli,” she said.