Animals are resilient creatures and oftentimes, their survival skills amaze us. A viral story of a dog who managed to survive in the bumper of a car after being hit on the highway truly shows the resilience of some animals.

A man was 200 miles into a road trip through China when he hit a dog. The man did not see the dog after he hit the animal, and he was driving so fast that he assumed the dog had either run away or was dead.

“I was driving pretty quickly at the time so when I hit the dog, I thought it had either died or run away, so I didn’t get out of the car to check,” the man said.

Though the man felt guilty, he also thought that there was nothing he could do about the situation. Then, some time later, he started to hear barking coming from the bumper. Finally, he pulled over and was shocked to see the terrified dog stuck inside the bumper. He could not believe that the dog had survived in there for so long!

The man rushed the dog to the nearest veterinarian, who let him know that the dog was miraculously alright. He soon released the dog to the man, who decided to adopt the canine. After all that he had put the dog through, the man felt that he owed the canine the respect of giving him a home.

“It escaped from great danger,” he said. “This really moved me. This shows my fate with the dog.”

This is one lucky dog, but sadly, most dogs who get hit by cars are not so lucky.

“In the US alone approximately 1.2 million dogs are killed on the roads each year,” Pets Tech stated. “The number of cats killed on the roads in the US every year is much higher at an approximation of 5.4 million. In most of these cases, the dog was hit for a relatively simple reason considering the facts. The dog cannot be seen by the motorist and the driver only spots the dog once it is too late. Even if you have a light colored dog, at night every dog becomes a hidden target.”

What a happy ending to an otherwise dreadful beginning!