SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The legendary Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi, famous for his role as Count Dracula, is the inspiration behind the name of the sole surviving puppy found with its throat cut at the Behchoko Dump three weeks ago.

Morag Howell and her new puppy Bela. She was only a few days old, her eyes were still closed, and had an open wound on her neck when she was found at the Behchoko dump three weeks ago. - Charlotte Hilling/NNSL photo

"It was Halloween – and Bela Lugosi. Getting that injury, it was a kind of a sick joke," said the puppy's adopter, Morag Howell.

"And actually, she suites Bela because she's quite cute."

Bela's eyes are now open and the gaping knife wound on her neck has almost completely closed up.

Dr. Tom Pisz, who along with his staff from the Great Slave Animal Hospital, have been giving Bela round the clock care, said she was coming along well.

"Her eyes are open, the wound is almost healed and she'll be adopted out soon," he said.

Howell, a friend of Dr. Pisz, decided to adopt the puppy almost immediately.

"She wasn't even two days old when I ask about adopting her," she said.

Bela will have to remain at the clinic for the next four weeks where she is being taken care of by a dog with her own litter of puppies.

"She's a great dog, and a great foster mom," said Howell. "She (the foster mom dog) doesn't have a home yet, so hopefully someone will take her."

In the meantime, Howell has been picking Bela up after work and taking her home for a few hours before Bela's night shift feeder comes to get her.

Howell said Bela is a frisky little puppy and enjoys sleeping on her back.

"She looks like a little bear cub when she's asleep," she added.

Howell has already adopted a three-legged dog called Tweek, who came from a traumatic background.

"I adopted one previously that had been abused and she was taken in from somewhere else from Yellowknife, and she had badly broken legs," she said.

"Animals who have been through some trauma are difficult to place, and some of them stay out in the pound for a long time."

She said dogs who aren't perfect physical specimens still make fantastic pets.

"For example, no one wanted to adopt a three-legged dog. (Tweek's) about seven now, and she's been a great little dog," she said.

Bela must stay at the hospital for four weeks because, "she needs to learn how to be a dog, and she needs her foster mom to teach her that," said Howell.

Howell admitted it may be difficult to take only Bela home with her.

"I'm one of those people, if I go out there, I see them and I wish they could all have homes. It's awfully difficult," she said.