**MOUNT AIRY, NC** — A scruffy, half-starved dog nobody wanted just became the most famous four-legged hero in North Carolina.
And folks, the story gets WILDER from here.
Animal control officers found the pup—now named Digger—abandoned in a drainage ditch off Highway 52 last Tuesday.
Shelter volunteer Marcus Bell tells us he nearly drove right past. "I figured it was just a stray rootin' around," Bell said. "Then I saw his paws.
He wouldn't quit." Bell climbed down the embankment—and heard it.
Digger had dug nearly two feet down into packed clay.
And there, buried beneath him, was a tiny puppy.
Shelter staff believe someone deliberately buried the newborn to get rid of it.
Digger, abandoned himself, dug for HOURS to get it out.
Vet techs say the puppy—nicknamed Pebble—was hours from death.
Barely breathing. "We were all crying," shelter director Dana Ruiz said. "This dog had nothing.
And he spent his last energy saving a baby that wasn't even his." WTVX News confirmed the story after obtaining shelter intake records and speaking with three staff members.
Both dogs are now recovering at a foster home outside Winston-Salem.
Pebble is bottle-feeding every two hours and gaining weight.
The shelter's phone has been RINGING OFF THE HOOK since the story broke.
One anonymous donor even offered to cover all vet bills for a YEAR.
Still, Ruiz says the shelter is drowning.
Every kennel is full. "Digger got lucky," she said. "Thousands don't." And that's the part that should make your stomach turn.
For every Digger, there are a dozen dogs nobody films.
If you have tips, call the Surry County Sheriff's Office.
Meanwhile, Digger's foster mom says he still digs.
Or maybe he's just making sure nothing else is buried down there. **Our take:** This dog did more with two bloody paws than most humans do with a lifetime of chances.
Final Thoughts
If that doesn't make you want to adopt, foster, or at least share this story—nothing will.