01 Jun 2025 Pet of the Month: Paw Patrol
By Lori Dunn
As a patrol officer with the Little Rock Police Department, Officer Chace Hunton is used to encountering something different every day.

Some days bring burglary investigations, trespassing calls or vehicle accidents. Some days bring a surprise or two. Or in this case, 11 surprises. In July of 2024, Hunton, who has been a patrol officer for about five years, was investigating a trespassing report at an empty apartment complex with fellow officer George Hawkins.
“People had been breaking into it and I was going in there with the manager. When he opened the door, I heard whining,” Hunton said. “I knew what it was. I knew there were some puppies but when I looked, there were 11 puppies.” The puppies were very small and he knew he could not leave them behind.
“They were about two weeks old, if that. Their eyes were not even open,” he said. A male dog had been seen nearby, but the mother dog was never located even though volunteers returned to search for her.
As soon as he left the apartment complex, Hunton called his wife, Hannah, about the litter. She is a nurse and her sister works with Best Friends Animal Society in Bentonville, so he knew they would do all they could to help the puppies.

“It was just like having a newborn. That first night we brought them home, we didn’t go to bed that night. We turned our bathtub into a crib with heating pads and blankets. It was just me and my wife feeding them. About time you got through feeding one, it was time to feed another,” he said.
They needed more help so they sent out a neighborhood group text message, and several people responded to help feed and bathe puppies. “It looked like they might not make it without more help,” he said. Eventually, the neighbors divided the pups into small groups to help make fostering easier. Sadly, two of the pups didn’t make it, but the other nine soon grew stronger from all the help they were receiving from the volunteers.
“It felt good to see so many people helping,” Hunton said. Neighbor Laura Jones took two or three puppies to foster and ended up keeping one as a pet. “She would just come over at first and help feed. We would leave the door unlocked for her,” he said.
Most of the puppies found homes in the Little Rock area, while two went to an animal rescue in Chicago and were then adopted. Even though they went to good homes, it was hard for the Huntons to see the puppies go.
“You get really attached when you bottle feed them,” Hunton said. He and his wife already had three dogs of their own so didn’t adopt a puppy.
The experience of caring for the pups was rewarding, but there are way too many dogs and cats that need homes. Hunton sees strays every day on the job. “People need to spay and neuter your dogs and cats. That is a big takeaway from this,” he said.