Kilo the pit bull was about to see the end of his life at a local animal shelter, when Candice Miller brought him home.

“Rescued in literally his last hour,” Miller says.

The brown and white doggie had arrived at the shelter, where Miller volunteers, from a home where it was said he’d been beaten, and forced to live outside, and where he didn’t get enough to eat. He and a female dog were bred, and then, Miller says, their puppies were subject to the same conditions.

That past had left Kilo fearful. He was so nervous that he crawled on his belly, when moving around the shelter. Miller devoted herself to improving his confidence, but Kilo was still overlooked.

Miller needed some healing, too. She’d recently quit a job that had left her stressed, depressed and anxious. One of her older dogs had recently died; she was heartbroken, to boot.

Taking care of shelter dogs, especially the pit bulls, was how Miller tried to soothe herself. She’d noticed they “got looked over” but “were incredibly gentle, sweet, loving and affectionate even in the shelter environment. It was impossible not to fall in love!”

She fell hard for Kilo. But no one else did; he just wasn’t putting on his best face for potential adopters.

After a couple of months, Kilo was given five more days to be adopted, or he’d be euthanized. Miller checked in on him every day. No takers. On the last day, when she called, Miller was told Kilo was in the holding area, waiting his turn to die.

She started to cry, then rushed right over to pick him up.

“The rest was history,” she says. “Kilo came into my life at a point where I needed him the most … We both had been through some bad stuff, but together are absolutely happy and healthy.”

Kilo — and Miller — got lucky, as did the three other pits, including a spectacularly adorable new puppy, Miller’s also taken in in the last few years.

It’s estimated that some 800,000 – 1 million pits are killed in shelters every year.

And Miller’s goal now is to help other pups, like hers, find their own happy families, by showing the world how great it looks when your home, your life, is overrun by dogs.