NATCHEZ — Local homeless dogs and pups recently boarded a big rig for a cross-country road trip and a better chance to become some stranger’s best friend.

Pat Cox, the shelter manger of the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society, said the Humane Society of the United States helped facilitate the transport of 65 dogs from the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society in two trips to shelters in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Cox said since the local shelter is overcrowded, transporting the animals to shelters with more room frees up space at home and gives those animals a better chance to get adopted.

“We don’t have to euthanize (as many). The more that we can find homes for the better we like it,” Cox said.

Cox said the recent transports on May 26 and Friday were the first time the local humane society has had some of its animals transported to shelters out of state.

The idea to transport animals came out of recent collaboration with the HSUS during the Mississippi River flood, Cox said.

The HSUS representative Lydia Sattler offered the local shelter the option to move out some animals, an option Cox said she was not aware of before the flood.

In late May, 53 animals from the Liberty Road shelter and those not claimed at the emergency shelter on Wall Street were shipped to Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Many of those animals were puppies.

“The first one we nicknamed the puppy express,” Cox said.

Cox said that same week, the shelter took in 75 new strays.

Last week, 20 animals from the emergency shelter and local shelter were transported in an 18-wheeler to West Palm Beach, Fla.

Cox said a couple who volunteers for the HSUS picked up the animals in Natchez last Friday on their way to grab more in Gulfport and Pensacola, Fla.

“They’re transporting them where they have a better chance of being adopted (in places where) there is more people that want them,” Cox said.

Cox said the local humane society will likely continue to use the transport service to help with overcrowding, but she is not sure at what frequency the animals will be picked up.

In Gulfport, dogs are shipped to more accommodating shelters once a month, she said.

Cox said the local humane society will likely continue to use the HSUS transporting service after its new shelter is built.

Cox said all of the transported dogs received health certificates and rabies shots before their journeys. The HSUS does not do the transport service for cats, she said.

The shelters where the Miss-Lou pups arrived reportedly needed more dogs for adoptions.

“Can you imagine a world when you don’t have enough animals to adopt?” Cox posed.

Cox said the trucks were air-conditioned, so the dogs were comfortable during the road trip.

“They all made the trip OK,” Cox said.

“We shed a few tears about some of them leaving, but we felt like what we were doing was best for them.”