Where Our Dogs Come From

When Big Fluffy Dog Rescue began in 2005, most of our dogs originated from the Nashville, Tennessee, area. That is no longer the case. It is true that many of our dogs come from kill shelters in Southern states and Midwestern states where spay/neuter laws do not exist and where the pet overpopulation problem is critical. Hundreds of thousands of extremely adoptable dogs and puppies are euthanized every year in the South and the Midwest as there simply are not enough homes for the dogs that end up in these shelters. Many times, a perfectly healthy dog has just three days to find a home before facing death at the end of a needle, or worse, a gas chamber. A dog whose owner surrenders it may die on the spot. We exist to help keep dogs from meeting this fate. However, we also take dogs from shelters in New England, Texas, the Gulf Coast, the plains states and the mid-Atlantic and a sizeable percentage of our dogs do not originate in the Southern states. We also take dogs from owners from these same areas surrendering their pets for a variety of reasons and we accept transfers from other rescues and shelters. The vast majority of our dogs are pulled from shelters.

We rescue dogs from across the eastern United States and house them in foster homes. We take dogs from Florida to Maine, from the Carolinas to Missouri, from Alabama to Wisconsin. In short, we are taking dogs from many states now. Once the dog is completely vetted and healthy, the dog may be moved to another foster home in one of our wings or may stay where he or she is. For those dogs that are transported to new homes, we have our own transportation and our own drivers. Transport is a weekly occurrence and fosters and adoptive homes meet the transport at various points along the East Coast and the Midwest. The overwhelming majority of our dogs are placed in foster homes as we rarely adopt straight from transport. We encourage our adopters to talk to the foster parents to learn about the dog they are interested in. If a dog is locally fostered near an applicant, we are happy to schedule a meet and greet.