Yuki the wolfdog went from an abandoned puppy to a viral sensation.
At just eight months old, the gray canine found himself in a seemingly hopeless situation: His original owner, plagued with health issues, found it much too difficult to care for an animal as large as Yuki, so he decided to abandon the pup at a local kill shelter. But luckily for Yuki, the Shy Wolf Sanctuary in Naples, Florida, came to the rescue.
"We rescued him from a failed house pet situation. Someone purchased him from a breeder and realized he was too much to handle," sanctuary volunteer Brittany Allen told Bored Panda. "They dumped him at a kill shelter at 8 months old. We stepped in and provided a home for him and he has been with us ever since."
The sanctuary later determined Yuki was 8.6 percent Siberian Husky, 3.9 percent German Shepherd, and 87.5 percent Gray Wolf, which explains his head-turning build.
Photos and video of Yuki sitting next to the 5'4" Allen have recently gone viral, generating a wide range of reactions on social media.
"Why does he looks much much more terrifying than a full blooded wolf?" one Instagram user asked.
"He's so beautiful," someone wrote.
"Run while you still have chance," another commented.
Though Yuki does look pretty intimidating in some shots, Allen insists the most-liked photos are a little misleading: "The face we make when people say Yuki’s picture is Photoshopped," she wrote in a caption. "It's just his fat angle guys. We all have one."
Unlike many of the other animals at the sanctuary, Yuki is not available for adoption as he's been diagnosed with blood cancer. The facility is, however, accepting monetary donations to go toward Yuki's medical expenses.
"Yuki has been fighting [the cancer] for quite a while now and is persevering so it is business as usual while we enjoy our time with Yuki," sanctuary director Jeremy Albrecht said. "When the day comes that he starts showing symptoms we will, as we always do, make the right decisions for Yuki’s quality of life."
