HILLCREST (WIFR) -- Four-year old Toby may look like a completely healthy dog just enjoying the outdoors but earlier this month he had a near-death experience doing just that.

"Called him from outside from the garage and he came in very sheepishly and just kind of shaking and his eye was closed. Brought him in the garage and when I wiped his eye and opened up his eye there was no eyeball. There was no bleeding, there was just empty. So I brought him in the house and called Dr. Dayton and he showed up in fifteen minutes," says Toby's owner Kim Whalen.

"When I got here Toby came and met me at the door. The first thing you notice is that one eye he was carrying it almost completely closed. His right eye. The other eye was ok. When we first examined it the eye appeared to be totally gone and you could see a little something that shouldn't be there," says veterinarian Dr. Tim Dayton.

"And after tugging and trying to get it out a couple of times he though it'd be better just to take him out to the van," says Whalen.

"Still did not know what it was and it was not until we finally figured out which direction it was going to come out that we figured out it was a four inch long stick," says Dayton.

"When he opened up Toby's eye the eyeball just appeared and rolled back. When he woke up he never acted as if there was anything wrong with it. It was a miracle. It really was. I mean at this time of year, it's just, it's a happy ending to a tragedy," says Whalen.

The return of Toby's vision wasn't as smooth as it may seem. In addition to multiple antibiotics, pain killers and creams, his eye took about two weeks to return to a normal color and is still quite blood shot.