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DALLAS — Minerva’s story starts out with a Christmas surprise. A good Samaritan noticed something strange under an old car in their neighbor’s yard.

“A dog that wasn’t theirs had just camped out and given birth to three puppies underneath the car,” says Holly Sampson, marketing director for Dallas Pets Alive!

Like her namesake, Professor Minerva McGonagall of the Harry Potter series, this mama was doing everything to help her proteges.

“She was giving everything she could to take care of her puppies,” says Sampson. “So, they were not wanting for food, but she was.”

Getting Minerva out from under her car and into a foster home was magic for her health.

“She’s gotten her health back,” says Sampson. “She’s even lost her mommy weight and now she is in fighting shape again, but she’s not a fighter at all, she is a lover.”

Minerva’s puppies: Harry, Ron and Hermione were quickly sorted and have new owners. But Minerva still waits for an owl to bring news of better days ahead.

“She is very calm, very gentle,” says Sampson. “She looks very knowing like Professor McGonagall, but she has a whole life ahead of her.”

Now it’s time for Minerva to be “transfigured” into a “fur-ever” home.