Davis and family rescue six dogs

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Mark Davis and his 14-year-old twin sons, Hunter and Fisher, found a female mixed breed dog that was fighting hard for her life.

The dog was living inside an old garbage dump near the South Texas ranch where the Davis family always spends the holidays. She was already down to skin and bones – and to make matters worse, she had a litter of five puppies.

“She was the doing the best she could to nurse those pups and keep them going, but she was in bad shape,” Davis said. “She was eating off an old hog carcass that somebody had left at that dump. It was just awful.”

Ultimately, it was more than the Davises could stand.

At Hunter’s urging – because Mark said he’s the biggest animal lover in a family filled with them – the Davises retrieved the dogs from the dump. And from there, all six canines must have felt like they won the recent Powerball lottery.

They got medical treatment, vaccinations, enough food to transform them from skinny to pudgy and then finally, new forever homes back in Arkansas.

“We already had two dogs down there with us,” Davis said. “Then after we got them all doctored up, we spent five weeks or so down there with this momma dog and a litter of pups.”

Then it was time to return home to Mount Ida, Ark., with a quick detour to the Skeeter plant in Kilgore, Texas.

“We went by Skeeter and picked up my new boat on the way home, and I think they all thought we were crazy,” Davis said, chuckling. “We had eight dogs, two kids and a new boat, but we made the 13-hour drive all the way back to Arkansas.”

Davis believes the mother dog, who he named “Sally,” was probably put out by someone on a nearby state highway. He had planned to keep her himself, but he ended up giving her to one of his friends who owns farmland.

“I would guess someone just pitched her out because she was gonna have pups, and they just didn’t want to deal with her,” he said. “She’s a survivor, because she found her way from the highway into that ranch.

“The ranch foreman’s got some hunting dogs that he keeps in a fence, and she probably heard them barking. She’s a smart dog, and she’s got a good home now.”

Through social media, Mark’s wife, Tilly, easily found homes for the five puppies, which appeared to be some sort of white Labrador retriever mix. During their five weeks at the ranch, they became known as “Peaches,” “Venture,” “Floppy,” “Fatty” and “Biter.”

Davis expects those names to stick as they go to live with their new owners.

“You know how social media is these days,” Davis said. “Not only did Tilly find a place for every one of them, but there was a waiting list.

“I’d say it all worked out OK.”