BUFFALO TWP — Found on Valentine’s Day weekend in Pittsburgh, Valentino only weighed 13 pounds. Now, the pit bull is up to 34 pounds and has been adopted by the Clifford family in Sarver.

Shane and Nicole Clifford, along with their two daughters, adopted the rescued pit bull recently after fostering Valentino for a few weeks, according to Shane Clifford.

The dog was found standing in the snow in a parking lot in Pittsburgh on Valentine’s Day weekend, which was a particularly cold time, said Dan Rossi, executive director of the Animal Rescue League Shelter and Wildlife Center in Pittsburgh.

“Thank God there was someone who acted and brought him to us,” Rossi said.

At the time, Valentino’s body temperature was severely low, Rossi said. The shelter immediately wrapped him in blankets to bring his temperature up, and Rossi said they were not sure if he would survive.

“He wouldn’t even be around if it wasn’t for (the Animal Rescue League),” Clifford said. “His body temperature was like 93 (degrees) ... He was in bad shape, they didn’t know if he was going to make it or not.”

Typically, a dog is meant to have a body temperature of 101 to 103 degrees.

At only 13 pounds, Valentino was severely malnourished and emaciated. One of his paws had a bad cut that had to be patched up, Rossi said.

Ultimately, the shelter kept Valentino for a while, and the Clifford family was given the opportunity to foster him on National Puppy Day, March 23.

But before the family could take Valentino home, they had to be sure the family’s two pit bulls, both of which also were rescued, would get along with Valentino.

The family has Cade, 7, and Candy, 2. While the veterinarians are not sure how old Valentino is, the best guess puts him at five months old, Clifford said.

“(The three dogs) just went in like a big pen and just hung out,” Clifford said, stressing that it was important to make sure the dogs would all get along. “That dog has been through enough so we weren’t going to put him in a bad spot. They’re just like people, sometimes they just don’t get along.”

The adoption was made official on Thursday, Clifford said.

The family renamed the puppy Scooba Steve, thanks to the creative minds of the Cliffords’ two daughters, Brooke and Briana Moon, 17 and 15. They came up with the name from the popular Adam Sandler film “Big Daddy,” in which the actor dresses up and walks around in full scuba gear.

When Scooba Steve, Scoobs for short, was recovering, he walked flat-footed with the dewclaw that is on the angled part of a dog’s leg fully touching the ground. ShaneClifford described that as the equivalent of the entire human forearm for Scoobs’ front legs.

Since the girls thought Scoobs’ gait made him look like he was walking in flippers, the name stuck and replaced Valentino.

While the family is not sure why Scoobs walked like that, it might be because he was kept in a cage the majority of the time and unable to fully stand or his muscles were so weak that he could not support himself on just the paw pads, Rossi said.

Part of Scooba Steve’s recovery process includes physical therapy two or three times a week at the Twinbrook Animal Clinic in Valencia.

There, Scooba Steve does exercises to strength his muscles, doing hurdles, running figure-eights around cones and walking a swimming pool.

The exercises help Scooba Steve build muscle tone and bring him closer to the physical development of a pit bull, Clifford said.

While Scooba Steve may be blessed to have found a happy, loving home, Clifford stressed that his family also feels blessed, saying that they’re the lucky ones who got to keep him.

According to Rossi, there were a couple hundred people interested in Valentino after the news broke.

For Clifford, adopting Scooba Steve just felt right, he said.

“I showed up, and he saw me,” Clifford said. “He came over and just sat right between my legs and he wouldn’t move, just like, ‘this is it.’ And on the way home, I had to put him in the backseat because he was licking my face and trying to crawl on me while I was driving.

“It’s almost like he knew. I know it sounds dumb, but it was crazy.”

And now that the Cliffords have three loving, loyal rescued pit bulls, they might be done for a while, he said.