Woman Rescues Puppy Hit by Cars and Adopts Her After Fight for Life (Exclusive)

A rush of headlights and the blur of tires across pavement — then the unthinkable: a puppy lies broken in the middle of the road, struck and left for dead as cars barrel past.

Kassie Vaughan’s instinct to then stop changed everything, sparking a viral TikTok that captures the desperate rescue and the fight for a second chance.

“I thought she was dead,” Vaughan tells PEOPLE, recalling the moment she spotted the battered puppy she would name Marcie Ann. “My heart just told me just get out and just move her out of the street and call the Humane Society so she just won’t continue to get ran over.”

The situation unfolded quickly, with strangers stepping in to help as Vaughan realizes the extent of the injuries. “Marcie Ann tried to get up and like, I could tell that her bones was broken,” she says, remembering the moment she scooped the puppy out of danger.

She recalls the improvisation on the side of the road, as two others helped her get the dog to safety. “We all three just picked her up, and we put her in my car, and that’s when I did broke every speed limit to get her to the shelter,” Vaughan remembers.

When she arrived, urgency took over as shelter staff sprang into action, as the injuries were critical. “They showed a sense of urgency,” Vaughan says, describing her mix of fear and relief as she surrendered the puppy to professionals.

Still, Vaughan insisted on staying close to the process and volunteering her own hands in the fight for survival. The odds were bleak from the start, and the shelter prepared her for a difficult reality. “I just told them just to give it a fight,” Vaughan shares, holding on to hope when euthanasia was on the table.

Those early updates were a blur of dread and determination, as Vaughan documented every step of the puppy’s journey. “My babies were like, ‘Mama, please don’t let her die,’ ” she remembers.

The family refused to stop talking to the puppy, clinging to the belief that words could tether her to life. “We just keep talking to her, like she’ll stay alive if we keep talking to her,” Vaughan says.

Then, against the odds, a shift arrived as news from the shelter that the dog was fighting back. “She’s starting to fight, like she’s doing good,” Vaughan recounts.

“I knew I was gonna keep her from the moment I got her,” she confides, explaining that the bond sealed long before the adoption was official.

Recalling the exact moment that bond crystallized, Vaughan shares, “Me and her… we bonded in the car when she was hollering on the TikTok video.”

When the vet finally gave her the green light, the moment was surreal. “I was ecstatic,” Vaughan says, recalling the moment she learned Marcie Ann was ready to come home.

Excitement collided with nerves as Vaughan pulled into the parking lot. “I was running around and then I remember they telling me to go pick her up from the vet, and I kept on circling the vet ’cause I was scared,” she admits.

The moment she holds Marcie Ann again, the weight of the rescue turns into something brighter. “When I actually had her in my arms, oh, that was my light up of the day,” Vaughan says.

However, bringing her home brought new challenges. Marcie Ann was healing, but she was also restless and defiant. “Her anxiety level is at a hundred,” Vaughan notes. “She tears the carpet up, the padding up, she tears her cage up, her crate pad up.”

Despite the pushback, Vaughan is no stranger to rescues, already raising two other dogs. But Marcie Ann’s relationship with her new canine siblings is slow-building. “She’ll growl at them, sniff them, but she put up with ’em because she knows, okay, they’re in the house,” Vaughan explains.

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Nonetheless, the experience has left an imprint that runs deeper than even Vaughan’s previous rescue work. “This experience has taught me a lot actually,” she shares. “I never rescued a dog that was on the verge of dying. So it definitely taught me a lot.”

That teaching moment fueled her advocacy as she considers the bigger issue of shelters, adoptions and abandoned pets, conveying that message with her followers. “I just encourage them to not shop with the people that are breeding the dogs,” she urges. “Go and get a shelter pet. They need homes, too.”

Through Marcie Ann’s story, Vaughan wants others to know they don’t have to carry the entire burden to make a difference. “If you don’t have the funds to take care of the animal, just take it to the shelter and they can find the necessary help for the dog,” she explains.