A dog has seemingly come back from the dead in Ozark, Alabama. A mixed-breed dog, now named Lazarus, survived the lethal injection meant to euthanize him – overnight.

A rescue worker picked up the dog after his survival and the dog now lives with another rescued dog in a Birmingham suburb with a family who adopted him after hearing his story on Facebook, according to ABC News out of Nashville.

The dog was dropped off at the Ozark City Animal Shelter on Aug. 19 by his owner who could no longer care for him because they were moving. The shelter scheduled the dog to be euthanized on Sept. 10 if no one stepped up to adopt him.

When that day came, a veterinarian and animal control officer Wanda Snell witnessed the injection. The dog moved when the needle went in, “almost as if fighting the drug,” said Snell. The dog was moved to a pen to be left alone until the drug took its full and final effect.

It never did. Even though the dog had been still and quiet when the vet left the facility the previous evening, by the next morning he was almost completely fine.

“He was back up and breathing and going right about business like it’s nothing,” said a supervisor for the city shelter, Ozark police Capt. Bobby Blankenship. He did, however, say the dog was weak and “wobbly” for a few days following the incident.

That is not the first near-death experience this dog has had. He survived being struck by a car, an accident which left him with cuts and tore off the pad on his left rear foot. His foot is now in a cast and on the mend.

No expert examined the dog to determine how he survived the lethal injection, but Dr. Robert Lofton of the veterinary school at Auburn University said such a phenomenon could have resulted from an improper dose of the drug or because the needle tip missed the vein.

Lazarus’ new owner, Jane Holston, says of her new dog, “It’s just amazing what all he has been through.”