South African filmmaker and dog lover Dave Meinert rescued and adopted a four-week-old Great Dane from an irresponsible breeder after the puppy was born with a pigment deficiency defect that can lead to serious health problems, including blindness and deafness. In fact, the pup was in such a bad condition that no one believed she would ever live to become a grown-up dog.

To make things worse, all of her brothers and sisters were either terribly deformed or dead.

Despite the pooch’s horrible prognosis, Meinert gave her a forever home, named her Pegasus and refused to give up on her. The kind-hearted man spent as much time with his pup as possible and helped Pegasus to survive and become the beautiful dog she is today.

In order to show other rescuers that there is always hope, Meinert captured amazing time-lapse footage of his weak pup growing into an adult. He doesn’t know how long Pegasus is going to be by his side, but he hopes they have a bright future in front of them.