BLACKSBURG, Va., May 8 -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued the following news release:

Courtney Pierce, a smallanimal veterinarian withnearly 20years of experience, was driving home after dropping her children off at school when she received a text from her husband:Come homeimmediately.

She called him back. "And he said, 'Dolly is veryhurt. I thinkshe'sdying,'" she said.

Dolly, a 7-month-old jenny miniature donkey, had gotten her head caught in a section of fence on a December morning when temperatures hovered around 20 degrees.

Later that day, the team at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine's Veterinary Teaching Hospital received her, hypothermic, dehydrated and barely responsive.

Over the ne...