Meet Wacku, a 7 year-old dog who spent 5 years of his life living in a shelter in the Philippines after a horrific incident maimed him for life back in 2012.

Wacku was guarding his owner’s tricycle when a drunk man wielding a machete walked up to him and sliced off most of his snout. It is beyond comprehension that someone could do something like this to a defenseless animal!

Wacku beat the odds to survive the ordeal, but he lost the top half of his snout to the incident.

It took five years for someone to finally see past Wacku’s appearance and take him in. When American animal welfare group ‘Road Dogs and Rescue’ heard about Wacku’s story, founder Nikki Carvey decided to go to the Philippines to rescue him.

She ended up bringing Wacku 8,000 miles back to the U.S. with her!

Oregon resident Liesl Wilhardt fell in love with Wacku as soon as she saw a video about him online.

“It wasn’t just how shocking his features are but he seems so intelligent and social. I just thought, ‘What a survivor,'” she said.

As the founder of Luvable Dog Rescue, Liesl has adopted many dogs, including a pitbull-corgi mix called Picasso who has a facial deformity.

Liesl ended up adopting Wacku, and he immediately became best friends with Picasso!

“Picasso and Wacku are exceptionally calm, tolerant and social dogs and they don’t notice each other’s physical differences. The cool thing about dogs is that looks don’t matter. If it smells like a dog, it’s a dog,” Liesl said.

“[He] has lost half his face and it’s crazy at first, but he acts so normal and happy,” Liesl explained. “Once people get to know who he is on the inside they forget about it. He seems to recognize almost right away when people are good and is incredibly affectionate. He climbs into my lap and licks and kisses me, which is a really weird feeling when he has no upper face.”

We’re so glad to see that Wacku’s story had a happy ending! SHARE this story so your family and friends can see this as well!