NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A group of soldiers in Afghanistan want to bring a litter of puppies home after they were rescued from an artillery pit.

Brenna Pearcy is a Belmont University student, and she's doing everything she can to make that happen. Her fiancée, Dylan Blackwell, is one of the deployed soldiers. Dylan told her the mom was sick so the soldiers nursed her back to health, and they fell in love with the puppies.

Pearcy said, "They just have come to really love the puppies and obviously it was a huge task for them to take on, taking care of a mom and her 7 puppies while they’re literally in Afghanistan, but they just couldn’t see it any other way than just having the dogs here with them."

All the puppies have been adopted by soldiers in the unit, and they're working with a group called 'Nowzad' to get them vaccinated before the long trip home. Dylan has adopted 'Bear' and Brenna will take care of him when her fiancé gets back from deployment this spring to go to officer training school.

It's going to cost $40,000 dollars to get the 7 puppies and their mom back to the United States, so they're raising money to make it happen. Checks can be mailed to:

Nowzad Dogs NFP, 2770 Main Street #161

Frisco, Texas, 75033, USA

You can include the name of the animal that you would like to donate to in your mailing. You can also donate online here.

NewsChannel5's Alexandra Koehn is working on the story and will have more at 4 and 6 p.m.