MARYLAND -- For some dogs, Interstate 81 Northbound is the road to freedom.

It's a little like the Pony Express, but it's the Puppy Express, a second chance for dogs who no one thought would be alive today.

After rescuers save dogs that would otherwise be put down, Movin' On Up Animal Transports drives them north.

They take them to shelters that have space for them until they get adopted.

Drivers pick the dogs up at highway exits, often in Winchester, Hagerstown and Chamberbsurg, Maryland. Each driver takes the dog to the next checkpoint.

One recent trip brought two dogs about 1,400 miles. A pit bull named Little River and a mix Poppy, were taken from North Carolina to shelters in Vermont and Maine.

"It's just people, volunteers, that want to save their lives and want to give them another chance in life so they move them on up to the north where there's people that are looking for these dogs,” says rescue driver Peggy Nesmith.

The dogs in the next lane could be ones going to a new life. "Some rescues even go in and just take dogs out of really bad situations,” says rescue driver Crystal Wilkinson.

"When you know that they're going somewhere and there's somebody else on the receiving end that loves them just as much, it's all worth it,” says rescue driver Pamela Vahle.

After hand off to handoff these dogs started to get a little more confident.

“It's very emotional sometimes it's worse than others. Today I've got tears in my eyes because they're just so sweet. I mean they're all good dogs but there are just some that really capture your heart,” says Wilkinson.

At the end of this road, they're looking for hearts that could be theirs permanently