Meet Odin, the Alaskan Malamute who’s had a difficult start to life.
He should have thick white and black coat but when he was found, he looked far from it.
With the help of some good people, some TLC and lots of love, he is back to looking his majestic, and happy self.
His story begins with a pair of breeders who neglected him from birth, he was chained up and ignored with several other dogs.
His fur was sparse and his skin was infected, he looked nothing like he is supposed to.
One day, he was rescued by staff at the Southern Pines Animal Shelter and Southern Cross Animal Rescue of Mississippi and his life finally turned around for the better.
Odin needed treatment and a loving home quickly, and so he found Sydney Schelkopf, his kind adoptive mother.
Speaking to The Dodo, Sydney said: “Poor Odin looked like he was taken straight out from a nightmare.”
“He was emaciated, almost completely hairless, covered in wounds, with cracked and broken teeth, and incredibly weak. He had a putrid smell to him from his horrible skin infections. Basically whatever could be wrong, was with this poor guy!”
Odin had no idea how to act around people when he arrived in his foster home, it was alien to him.
“I honestly don’t know if Odin had ever been inside a house before,” Schelkopf said.
It broke Sydney’s heart to see a dog so confused at his first taste of freedom.
“He sniffed around the whole house and kept looking back at me like, ‘What’s the catch?’ For weeks after I got him, he would just lay in a spot. I couldn’t get him to play with toys or act like a ‘normal dog.’”
Despite the confusion, Odin knew he was in good hands with Sydney and it took him only two nights to begin opening up.
“The second night I had brought him home, he was brave enough to come to bed with me,” Schelkopf said.
“He climbed onto the bed and just threw his bony body on me, looked up at me with such heartfelt eyes and sighed in such a loving embrace. I knew Odin had finally found where he needed to be.”
A few months later, Odin has transformed into the beautiful Alaskan Malamute he always was.
His fur now looks fluffy and majestic, he is healthy, happy and cheeky, just like an Alaskan Malamute should be!
“He is currently undergoing heartworm treatment which has been a huge battle,” Schelkopf said.
“We have our good days and our bad days. Once all our heartworm treatment is done, we are going to have some corrective surgery on his teeth. Unfortunately, a lot of them are in bad shape, and we are going to do everything we can to get them as best as we can!”