Sometimes a simple act of kindness brings about more good than you ever could imagine.

You think you’re just taking an ordinary picture of a family, but it ends up meaning the world to them. Or you think you’re just helping a few dogs and you end up helping more dogs than you can count on your fingers.
When Ashlee adopted a pregnant dog from a kill shelter in 2017, the dog was about to be put to sleep. Ashlee knew she was saving more than one life, but she had no idea how many lives she would end up saving. Amazing!

Dogs have always had a special place in Ashlee Holland’s heart, but she was especially moved when she met a golden retriever named Ava.
At the time, Ava was pregnant and living at a local dog shelter. And what hit Ashlee so hard was the fact that Ava was scheduled to be killed. She was on the euthanasia list. She had no other choice, no other hope.

The mother-to be had been at the shelter for too long, and nobody seemed to want her, so the shelter was set to euthanize her. But then, Ashlee stepped in and changed everything.

”I felt like Ava needed me,” Holland told The Dodo and added:

”I almost didn’t accept her because I had just received a group of bottle-fed kittens from another rescue and I thought a pregnant dog, and soon to be puppies, would be too much for me. [But] I couldn’t get Ava out of my mind and so I accepted her and I’m so glad I did!”

But what Ashlee didn’t know when she adopted Ava was how pregnant the golden retriever actually was.

Ava’s tummy was so full of puppies that it wasn’t clear many puppies Ava would have – but let’s just say, the surprise awaiting Ashlee was huge.

AVA AND HER 18 ROYALS
In the end, gave birth to 18 healthy puppies.

“First puppy came out at 10:02. She then popped up four more within 57 minutes. She had two more in the next hour and a half or so. I thought she was done. Cleaned her off, went to bed, woke up, there were eight more puppies. Got my kids ready for school, there are now three more puppies,” Holland said.