These 5 Dogs Are Heroes. They Are Also Pit Bulls.

This post is part of HuffPost’s ongoing #PitBullWeek coverage.

Virtually every dog relishes a loving scratch behind the ears and some sweet, vocal praise. But dogs identified as pit bulls get a bad reputation and a lot less love. For many human ears, the label “pit bull” connotes a vicious animal with the innate will to attack.

The prejudice against pit bulls might, in part, be founded on old studies (which have since been debunked) that claim pit bulls are more likely to bite than other dogs. They are not.

In hopes to change the narrative surrounding these animals, we’re sharing 16 incredible pit bulls who’ve put their loyal nature, smarts and sweetness to work to save the day:

Lefty took a bullet for her owner.

When an intruder fired a shotgun at Lefty’s owner, the pit bull jumped in the way and took a bullet for him. The dog suffered extreme injuries on her shoulder and her leg, which had to be amputated. Lefty’s heroic move was recognized by a large Facebook community: Supporters helped the family cover 100 percent of the medical costs of Lefty’s surgery, and she’s now “trotting around like she’s been a 3-legged dog her entire life,” the Atlantic Animal Hospital shared on their Facebook.

• Baby rescued a family and its dogs from a house fire.
• 
  “There were flames shooting down the hallway,” Rhonda Westenberger told KOCO in February 2013. “If Baby hadn’t woken Evelyn up, I don’t think either one of us would have come out of it.” 
  
  Baby barked and pounced on Westenberger and her sister, Evelyn, alerting them of the smoke filling their Oklahoma home. After the people were taken care of, Baby went back for the five other dogs trapped in the home. According to a family member, one of the dogs was hiding underneath the bed. Baby dragged the dog by the neck outside to safety.
• Creature saved an 89-year-old woman with dementia.
• 
  Creature and her owner, Cara Jones, were out on their routine nightly walk when Creature did something out of the ordinary: She bolted from her usual spot to find Carmen Mitchell, an elderly New Jersey woman who suffers from dementia, CBS reported. Mitchell had separated from her caretaker and lost her way for about eight hours. She was discovered about half a mile from her home, without a coat or shoes. Without Creature’s keen sense of smell and unrelenting drive, Mitchell may have been lost for much longer. 
• TaterTot saved a 4-year-old boy from a blood sugar crash.
• 
  On his fourth day as a foster dog, TaterTot the pit bull saved Christi Smith’s four-year-old son’s life. The pup barked and whimpered in the middle of the night as he paced between Smith and her son Peyton’s room in Minneapolis. When Smith check on Peyton, she found him incoherent and barely breathing. At the emergency room, doctors found his blood sugar levels had crashed dangerously. Veterinarian Isis Sanchez told KMSP-TV that TaterTot’s sharp sense of smell helped him sense Peyton’s shift in body chemistry. 
  
  TaterTot’s smart move earned him a permanent home with the family: “I am never going to let this dog go,” foster mom-turned-permanent-mom told the Pioneer Press. “I owe him for the rest of his life.”
• Jack risked his life for a cat being attacked by coyotes.
• 
  
  
• Here’s another story that busts the myth that cats and dogs can’t be friends. Sheree Lewis told HuffPost she saw two coyotes shaking her cat, Kitty, by the neck and tail outside her home in Seminole, Florida. Her son’s five-year-old pit bull, Jack, sprinted to the scene and forced the coyotes to let go of the cat. “I didn’t know Jack could run that fast. He was on them so fast,” Lewis said. Even before the incident, Jack and Kitty spent a lot of time together. “He probably feels like he’s the caretaker,” Lewis said. Jack, Lewis says, is a friendly neighborhood dog and has 15 dog friends where he lives. And he and Kitty are very close. “There was instant acceptance from both of them on their first meeting,” Lewis says. “They sometimes sleep together and Jack keeps tabs on her. He even herds her back in if she slips outside. He is her hero! He’s an amazing dog and a great ambassador for a very misunderstood breed.”