Chloe the Wonder Pup‘s story begins during a snowstorm in North Carolina. The tiny Pit Bull was just a week old when authorities were called to the home where she and her dog family had been abandoned, left behind when the last tenants moved away.

Chloe’s father, chained up outdoors, had already succumbed to starvation and exposure.

“Her mom was clinging for her life,” explains Amber Oravsky, who adopted little Chloe seven weeks later. “They brought mom and three or four siblings into the shelter, but Chloe was the only one who survived.”

Without a mother to nurse her, the shelter was no place for such a young puppy, so an employee of the Stokes County Animal Shelter in Germanton, North Carolina, took little Chloe into her own home as a foster puppy. The tiny dog needed to be bottle fed every two hours.

In foster care, Chloe was loved and cared for by humans for the first time. Her foster family made sure she was fed, cuddled, and socialized extensively.

“They took her everywhere. If they went to a baseball game, Chloe went to a baseball game,” says Oravsky.

Eventually Chloe’s foster family turned her over to The Fort, a no-kill shelter dedicated to the rescue of all dogs, but Pit Bulls like Chloe in particular. Founded by reality TV star Jake Gardner, who appeared on Animal Planet’s Pit Bulls and Parolees, the shelter serves an area of North Carolina that sees 30,000 dogs enter shelters annually.

Oravsky and her fiancé live in upstate New York, but were planning a trip to visit family in North Carolina when a nephew posted pictures of Chloe.

Despite having two dogs and two young children at home already, Oravsky and her fiancé both fell in love with the puppy in the pictures, and were soon completing The Fort’s application process. The family drove to North Carolina and stopped at the shelter to pick up eight-week-old Chloe on the way to Oravsky’s in-laws.

The whole family fell in love with the adorable puppy, but their happy vacation was quickly overshadowed by concern.

“When we first got her, the first couple of days she was okay, but then she got real lethargic,” Oravsky recalls. “She wouldn’t eat. Every time she drank, she threw up.” Oravsky rushed little Chloe to the emergency vet and received devastating news. Chloe had parvo.

Parvo, also known as canine parvovirus, can cause a fatal illness in dogs. The highly contagious virus is spread either through contact between dogs or through feces. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, canine parvovirus type 2c is the most common variant of parvo in the United States, and it can remain infectious in soil for at least year. The ASPCA notes the virus severely impacts a dog’s intestinal tract and also attacks white blood cells. Young animals who survive parvo can suffer cardiac problems for the rest of their lives.

After the frightening diagnosis, Oravsky’s in-laws suggested taking Chloe to their regular vet, where she stayed for several days of treatment.

“We caught it early enough,” says Oravsky. “She bounced right back. They gave us daily updates while she was in the infirmary.”

The experience of almost losing Chloe has made Oravsky a vocal advocate for pet vaccination.

“Chloe did have the booster, but she obviously didn’t get it in time because she ended up with parvo,” says Orvasky, adding that Chloe probably picked up the virus as a very young puppy, before her arrival at The Fort.

“Make sure that you vaccinate your pets. Take them to the vet when they need to go to the vet, because parvo can be prevented,” she says.

After Chloe won her fight against the virus, she came home to find she had another fight on her hands — this time the little puppy was up against breed bias. Some of Oravsky‘s extended family members remain skeptical of the Pit Bull, who shares the house with two children younger than two. Oravsky says she simply doesn’t believe in bad dog breeds, just bad owners and bad training. She says that Pit Bulls make delightful family dogs.

“Pit Bulls were known as nanny dogs in the beginning. They were meant to be with kids. She is so good with my two boys,” Oravsky says. “They’re goofy, they’re playful, and their tails — well, at least Chloe’s — are always wagging.”

Oravsky maintains that happy Chloe has proven that she can overcome anything, and as the dog enters adolescence she has another challenge to take on. After a recent scrap with her older dog sister Kiki, an Olde English Bulldog, young Chloe wound up needing stitches and a drain.

Oravsky is confident that with the right tools, both dogs can learn to live in harmony. She says the next challenge for her wonder pup Chloe will be training with a behaviorist.

Read more Monday Miracles:

• Wilson and His Canine Family Were Saved After He Was Shot in the Mouth
• Trudy the Puppy Mill Italian Greyhound Finds Freedom at Last
• Phoebe the Senior Pug Saved Her New Family From a Fire

About the Author: Heather Marcoux is a freelance writer in Alberta, Canada. Her beloved Ghost Cat was once her only animal, but the addition of a second cat, Specter, and the dog duo of GhostBuster and Marshmallow make her fur family complete. Sixteen paws is definitely enough. Heather is also a wife, a bad cook, and a former TV journalist. Some of her friends have hidden her feed because of an excess of cat pictures. If you don’t mind cat pictures, you can follow her on Twitter; she also posts pet GIFs on Google+.