LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — In July of this year, Little Roc police officer Chace Hunton was investigating a report of trespassing at an abandoned apartment in southwest Little Rock when he found something unexpected.
Eleven tiny puppies were curled up in the corner of one of the rooms, with no mother in sight.
The first thing he did was reach out to his wife, Hannah.
“He said, ‘I need you to look at the picture I just sent you,” Hannah said. “There was a box of teeny, tiny, filthy, fully infested puppies, and some of their eyes weren't even open.”
Chace then reached out to the local animal shelter, but they were overcrowded and unable to take on this many puppies so close to death.
But his efforts didn’t end there.
“I just couldn’t leave them,” Hunton said. “So I found a box and put them all in.”
Hannah said she’d help take on the puppies for now, but needed help.
Hunton contacted her sister, Natalie Shelton, who works for the Best Friends Animal Society, a nonprofit organization that saves the lives of animals nationwide.
“We kind of started figuring out what can we do to provide for them?” Shelton said. “And really, not only provide for the puppies, but empower these community members that are trying to step up and help out. This is part of what we do. We teach community members what to do to get involved and to help save lives.”
Shelton also helped obtain bottle-feeding supplies, food and veterinary care for the dogs.
But that wasn’t the only help Hunton had.
She also reached out to her neighborhood group for help, and eventually, Shelton and Hunton were able to put together a group to take care of the puppies.
For two days and nights, people helped feed the dogs around the clock, bathe them and treat them for fleas.
Then, they divided the puppies into groups of two and three and sent them to foster homes.
“We sent people home with their puppies and a bag of supplies that had everything they needed,” Hannah said. "I was finally able to get some sleep.”
When they were found, the puppies were not in good shape, and unfortunately, two of them could not be saved.
However, the other nine did make it, and two of them were placed in homes by an organization in Chicago.
The other seven were adopted by families in Little Rock- including the family of Hunton’s neighbor, Laura Jones.
Jones had been waking up in the middle of the night to feed Winston, nicknamed Winnie, Gilbert, or Gibbie.
Gibbie was eventually adopted by two LRPD officers who had lost their dog a year earlier, but when Winnie’s adoption fell through at the last minute, Jones stepped in.
“There was no way I was going to put him on a bus,” Jones said. “I was not too terribly sad that the adoption fell through because we absolutely fell in love.”
Shelton said stories like these can become the norm; all it takes is people to step up.
“Every rescue and shelter in the state of Arkansas, especially in Central Arkansas, needs help,” Shelton said. “They need volunteers, whether that is helping in the shelter or transporting for them. If you can foster, that will be the best thing... and fostering is always temporary.”
Click here for more information on Best Friends Animal Society.