Say ‘hellooo” to oodles and oodles of doodles! They’re fluffy. They’re adorable. And they’re the 45 newest residents of Nashville Humane.

So, how did they get here? First, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but we have a puppy mill problem in this country. Pets are being overbred. We have far too many pets who need homes for there to be “mills” churning out litter after litter.

A transport partner has been working to help counsel some breeders in her area out of breeding and to surrender over their pups. We connected late last week to assist in clearing their shelter for another big upcoming intake, and we just couldn’t say no.

So, our tiny little transport team of three left out of Nashville at 4:45 am on Sunday, and about 7 hours later, they were loading 45 precious, but definitely scared, doodles into the NHA transport vehicles. At about 8:00 pm, the NHA intake team was ready to greet them back at the shelter. Transports like these aren’t easy. Yes, they’re adorable. But most of these guys have never interacted with a leash or likely had much positive human interaction. They don’t know it, but all of these loving, caring people are here to help. The worst part of their stories is over now. The page has been turned.

Today, each of the 45 pups will get a full medical workup from our amazing veterinary team. They’re already being showered with love and attention from the team. Every single pup is going to need a serious bath and some heavy-duty grooming. Medical grooming is necessary when underlying health concerns are a result of poor living conditions that are typical in “mill” environments. Additionally, overbreeding causes health concerns for some mama pups; we’ll be monitoring extra closely over the next few days/weeks to come.

We have a whole host of volunteers who are coming in to bathe and even a couple of volunteers who are pet groomers! Volunteers helped with transport. Volunteers unloaded. Volunteers are amazing. If you want to become an NHA volunteer, email volunteer@nashvillehumane.org to get started.

Fosters are ALWAYS needed at NHA. When we have emergency situations like this, we need fosters to not only support the transports, but fosters also allow us to keep our normal operations full speed ahead as well. Email foster@nashvillehumane.org to join our foster program.

HOW DO I ADOPT?! You say? Well, don’t go nuts; we’re going to do adoption applications for most of these guys just to keep things organized and less “bonkers” for our team. Stay tuned for more info on social when it comes time to adopt.

But mostly, this post is about trying to raise a few dollars to support these pups. As you can see, transports like these take resources. And while we’re going to do everything in our power to help partners and pets in need, it definitely helps to know our pet-loving community has our back. We say “yes” because you make this happen. So, if you’d like to support these guys through our Transport and Emergency Medical Funds, there’s a button on this post. Or our Venmo is @nashvillehumane. Every little bit counts, whether it’s a few dollars or a few more; we’re asking because this is how we save lives.