When Odin’s then-foster mom, Sydney Schelkopf, saw him for the first time, she could hardly believe her eyes. He barely even looked like a dog, let alone the fluffy Alaskan malamute he was supposed to be.

“Poor Odin looked like he was taken straight out from a nightmare,” Schelkopf told The Dodo. “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!”