When this little pup showed up at the doorstep of his future mom, it was a real blessing in disguise. On the outside, he was falling apart; he was malnourished, matted and full of worms. But on the inside, he had a very special gift.

Imgur user tayknox007 decided to tell the story online for everyone to see. Here it is below in her own words:

“This is Rocky. He is a German Shepherd mix and honestly saved my life.”

“While it [may] not seem like a big deal this lil man came into my life when I needed him the most and when he needed me the most.”

“About two years ago when it was December in Georgia the temperature had dropped into the negatives…to the point that the lens on your eye would freeze if you were not careful…”

“At this time in my life, I was on the brink of suicide…I won’t go into much detail as to why but I went months and days with little to no sleep, I couldn’t look anyone in the eye and my anxiety by this point had became so debilitating to the point where I stayed up till 5 am throwing up and wouldn’t leave my room because of it.”

“But, like most stories, mine has a silver lining…”

“Rocky showed up in December on the faithful night, in negative temperatures fighting for his life…”

“Rocky was found at the bottom of my grandmother’s doorstep… he was 5 weeks old, starved to the bone, matted fur, and a worm problem…”

“It took multiple baths and combings to get out fleas and matted fur… and 3 treatments to get out all worms that resided in his tiny fragile body…”

“Finally, after all was said and done, Rocky finally started to have behaviors like a normal pupper… but something was different…”

“He has a gift. Now I know before you start jumping to conclusions and say that’s impossible, how is that so?? A gift? What kind? The ability to sit? It’s just a stray dog. He’s not special.. But oh, is he…I can promise this lil guy is something special, something you don’t always find with a stray…”

“Rocky has this amazing talent to signal when I am about to have an anxiety attack and when my depression is getting too severe before I’m even able to recognize the symptoms.”

“In this picture here he just realized I was in the developing stages of my anxiety attack and immediately jumped up and looked at me directly and threw this face on and then slowly laid down and placed his paw on my thigh. He continued to lay there and distract me with anything he could find to bring me out of my anxiety attack I was having. He licked away tears (gross lol) and even laid his head on my shoulder until it was gone.”

“He has saved me so many times. He gives me a reason to keep going when all is lost. I love him so much and so does my husband, I just wanted to take the time and show you all how proud I am of him and how far he has come.”

Rocky is now all grown up and healthy as can be. 🙂

What an amazing story! And we’re so glad she opened up and shared it with the world.