Nym, a rescue dog from Romania, didn’t always live the pampered life she leads today.

She used to roam the streets of Bucharest as a stray – and then she was caught and taken to a municipal shelter.

It was there that her suffering began. While no one knows just how much physical and emotional abuse she went through at the shelter, what is known is heartbreaking: Someone gouged out Nym’s eyes.

“When she was rescued from the pound by a local animal lover, she was pregnant,” Sian Porter, Nym’s current owner, who lives in the U.K., told The Dodo. “Her rescuer sheltered her and her pups were born, but sadly died a few weeks later.”

Nym was then taken to the U.K.’s Blind Dog Rescue. The rescue reached out to Porter, who already owned a blind pup named Pedro, and asked if she was interested in fostering Nym. Porter said she couldn’t turn the rescue down.

“Nym was a shell when I first met her,” Porter said.

“Broken and so weak, she wet herself in fear at the sound of my voice,” she said.

But with time, Nym began to come out of her shell and learned to trust Porter.

In one remarkable episode, Porter took Nym to see a groomer. When Porter came back to pick up the dog, she called Nym’s name – and for the very first time, Nym responded by walking up to her and burying her face into her neck, Porter told the Daily Mail.

That was when Porter knew that she wanted to give Nym the forever home she deserved.

Nym is now about 7 years old and loves to be cuddled. When she gets excited, she spins around in circles and gets quite vocal whenever someone comes home and doesn’t immediately give her attention (preferably in the form of a snuggle).

She lives in harmony with two other dogs, a cat and a rabbit.

“She has grown in every way possible to the point she’s now a therapy dog giving joy to others,” Porter told The Dodo. “She has the most beautiful soul.”

You can keep up with all of Nym’s adventures on Facebook.