NATCHEZ — Former police chief Mike Mullins and his wife Lauren have spent years helping the two-legged members of the Natchez community, but now the couple is spending more time caring for those with a couple more legs and a lot more fur.

In the last year Lauren has started fostering animals who are waiting for a new home, and Friday when The Dart landed on Auburn Avenue she was the foster owner of five cats, a dog named Bella and her two puppies both named Sasha.

Lauren took Bella and the two puppies out Saturday to the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society’s Adoption Day, but none of the dogs were among the 11 animals adopted. The puppies returned home with Lauren, and she will keep them until they can find a home.

Lauren said she has up to 18 puppies from two different litters, but has since gotten that down to just the two Sashas. She said keeping up with so many needy animals is difficult, and she gets plenty of help.

“(The Humane Society) called to see if I could take them, and I told them I didn’t have a fence, so they brought a fence they had at the shelter,” Lauren said. “It takes everybody working together.”

Lauren is one of several foster owners in Natchez, and she said that many of the 18 puppies were either adopted or are with other foster families.

Lauren said she will get a call from Judy Curran or Linda Kennon from the humane society asking if she has room for a new addition, and she finds it hard to say no.

“It’s kind of like when your grandmother calls,” she said. “You kind of have to.”

Lauren said her husband was not thrilled with the idea of taking in so many animals at first, but the idea is growing on him.

“He hates animals, but he’s started actually liking them,” Lauren said.

Lauren teaches math at Morgantown Elementary, and she said many members of her class were a little skittish around Bella, but they too have warmed up to the dogs.

“The students wouldn’t touch her at first, but now they actually play with them,” she said. “They come over and play.”

A couple of Lauren’s students are even taking after their teacher and fostering a puppy, she said.

Lauren said Bella and the puppies love eating corn and potatoes, and Bella has apparently taken a liking to the neighbor’s swimming pool.

“The neighbor’s pool had dog hair in it,” Lauren said.

The Mullins family started fostering dogs approximately two months ago, but Lauren said the family specialty is cats.

They are currently fostering five cats, but the cats are becoming permanent family members.

The family has two cats that they bottle fed when they were kittens that live in the house, and three more than live outside.

“We got a phone call about an elderly woman that had died in her house, and they said there was a kitten inside,” Lauren said. “It was actually a full-grown cat, and we took it in and got attached.”

That cat, named Oreo, now lives with the Mullins family. Lauren said cats are generally easier to find homes for, and she usually prefers fostering cats.

The Mullins’ 14-year-old daughter Emme also gets into the business of caring for the animals, but her role is more of a playmate.

“She’s not allowed to have her own,” Lauren said.

Lauren said Emme likes the variety of having different animals come and go.

Lauren said Bella and the puppies are still waiting to find homes along with a number of other dogs and cats that can be seen at natchezpetadoptions.org.