Love at first sight

"Oogy is a white ­pit-bullish dog with a truly strange, skew-whiff face - left ear missing, part of the left jaw gone, mouth and snout pulled sideways.
And that’s after extensive reconstructive surgery. When he first saw his beloved pet, owner Larry Levin thought Oogy’s face had melted.
Oogy was probably two months old when Larry first clapped eyes on him, and the puppy’s then-horrendous appearance was the least of his problems - as an appallingly injured stray, he was due to be put down.
Which would have come as a merciful end to a short and dreadful life. Oogy’s origins are shrouded in mystery - he probably started life as a drug dealer’s fighting dog who’d refused to fight and had then been used as bait for other dogs.
Somehow, he had survived, but only just, with major wounds to his head and most of the left side of his face gone. A vet at the local animal hospital in Philadelphia had tried to repair the worst of the damage, but he thought the injuries too severe for Oogy to survive.
But survive he did and, even more ­triumphantly, with his gentle and ­affectionate temperament intact.
For Levin, it was love at first sight - or, perhaps more accurately, first lick - and he resolved to adopt him."
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