“Petra is starved, in pain, and exhausted – she can barely move. She’s been fighting far too many things for too long,” wrote Save A Greek Stray when they first saw her and knew they had to rescue her.

The dog had been living on the streets of Oropos, a rural area of Athens, Greece for many years. But the years had taken their toll and her body was riddled with infections and sickness.

They named her Petra, the Greek word for “stone” because her skin was scaled and hard from mange. They shared photos of her on social media, which caught the eye of Valia Orfanidou, an experience dog rehabilitator.

She was touched by the dog she hadn’t even met and wrote, “Even severely emaciated and with her face turned into stone by mange, the way she looked right into the camera made her look gorgeous. As if she was looking into your soul.”

Her affinity for Petra lead Valia to reach out to the rescue and arrange a visit.

“I wasn’t a volunteer at that shelter back then, but I anticipated every week to see updates on her, Valia wrote. “Finally I got to meet her a few months after she had fully recovered from everything that was wrong with her – mange, leishmaniasis, ehrichia…you name it.”

Valia has rescued dogs deemed “hopeless” cases before but she quickly realized that Petra had a worse problem than all her health issues and that was she did not trust anyone.

“Despite the love and care she had been receiving for months, she was still too fearful, unwilling to leave her cage and would growl at the other dogs,” explains Valia.

Valia began working with her. “The first time I walked her it took us one hour to cover a distance of just a few meters from her cage,” she said. “Every week she was more willing to go for a walk, she started tolerating affection and the company of other dogs.”

“She never made a step backwards, until she reached the point where she is today,” said Valia.

With lots of patience and lots of time, Petra began to open her heart.