Here is Belle. Animal protection officials in Johannesburg, South Africa, spotted her wandering the streets in a horrible state in September.

You can see little white bumps covering her ears and eyes. Those are all ticks. It would take a heart of stone not to feel sorry for this hulking creature, who is completely covered in blood-sucking insects.

There are so many of them that she almost looks like she has mange or another skin disease, but the “tick” is simply a thick layer of swollen ticks.

They cluster around her ears and eyelids, where the skin is thin and the blood vessels are the fullest. The ticks had left Belle so bleeding that she was practically anemic and could barely walk.

These photographs are really hard to look at, especially for  dog lovers, but they serve the important function of exposing what dogs really suffer when left alone.

CLAW, the organization that found Belle, couldn’t even remove most of the ticks right away because of the blood loss she would suffer if they removed them all at once.

Instead, they had to treat her and wait for the ticks to fall off.

But despite the pain of seeing Belle in so much pain, the treatment was successful. All the ticks fell off and Belle finally began to heal.

She will probably always have some scars, though she doesn’t seem to mind any of them. She’s now a beautiful, cheerful girl with a shiny coat.

The areas they lost to ticks and scars are filling in, and more importantly, she’s much happier.

Best of all, happy Belle has found a forever home with her beautiful human, Hanna.

According to CLAW’s Facebook page: “Belle literally punched Hannah in the heart within seconds of meeting them, and it’s been a perfect match.

Belle got on her ass and hasn’t looked back, getting better every day!”

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