No one knows exactly how sweet Nico spent the first six years of his life, but it’s clear that it was filled with pain. When he arrived at a shelter in Los Angeles back in 2009, his wounds pointed to a history of dog fighting.

Aside from his harshly clipped ears, which appeared to be crudely cut with kitchen shears, he was deaf, covered in fleas and dirt, and had several cancerous tumors on his head and body. Unfortunately, the shelter decided to label the poor guy as “dangerous” and his chances of finding the help he desperately needed grew smaller and smaller.

Nico was close to being euthanized when one woman changed his whole life with a single heartbreaking photo.

Nikki Audet from the Mutt Scouts rescue organization shared this image on Facebook where it soon spread across thousands of news feeds.