Twyla Cairns and her husband Terry nursed four of the horses back to health. The fifth was in such bad shape it had to be euthanized.

Now the search is on to find those animals a good home.

Terry Cairns found the abandoned horses wandering down a Pierce County logging road in a cold, driving rain.

When he set out on a hunting trip for elk last week, Cairns had no idea he'd come back with five horses. He found them on a logging road deep in the woods outside the town of Elbe.

"I knew they were in dire straits and that something had to be done," he says.

The horses were cold, injured and horribly malnourished. It appears they were afraid to leave the area where they were dropped off.

"Walked up and down the road, and they ate all the grass within about a tenth of a mile," Cairns says.

Cairn's wife, Twyla, drove their trailer to pick them up.

"You know, they were all so starved and hungry - there was just no food for them to eat," she says.

The horses could have been stranded for up to two weeks, maybe by someone who - during a tough economy - could no longer afford to care for them.

But Cairs says he can't understand why their former owner didn't try to do something - even if they couldn't afford to care for the animals themselves.

"To just abandon them, there are other avenues to take," Cairns says.

One horse was so bad off it had to be euthanized.

It's believed the two horses facing the toughest recovery are older than 15. Another horse could be pregnant.

The four surviving horses can't stop eating, or begging for attention.

They've even regained a little spring in their gallop - thanks to lots of care.

"I'm just a compassionate person - about people, about animals. And I just don't see not doing anything," Cairns says.

With the horses now on the road to recovery, there comes a new challenge - finding new homes for them.

"They were hurt. They don't want to relive what they did," says Twyla Cairns. "They just want to go on - and if I could ask them, it would be, 'Where do you want to go? Who do you want to go live with?'"

"They just want somebody that'll say, 'Hi, how ya doin'? I love ya.' Every day. If you could find somebody who could do that, they'd be in heaven."

Or a nice green pasture - filled with love, and maybe plenty of really good hay.