Bachelor party in the woods quickly turned into an adorable puppy rescue mission

Bachelor parties are infamous for their unpredictability and one Michigan groom experienced a truly extraordinary surprise when unexpected guests crashed his celebration. Mitchel Craddock, hailing from Vicksburg, had planned a thrilling five-day four-wheeling adventure in the woods near Huntsville, East Tennessee, accompanied by seven of his closest groomsmen. Little did they know that the party would take an adorable turn as they woke up on the first morning to find a motherly dog waiting just outside the front door. "We were cooking bacon with the door open. The next thing you know, there’s this dog sitting right at the front door. She wouldn’t come inside, but she sat right there," he shared with ABC News.

The dog refused to come inside, but she ate the men's leftover breakfast. She seemed to be in a rough shape and drank a lot of water. They eventually started petting her. "She was such a sweet dog that once we gained her trust, she was happy to see us, wagging her tail—just a big sweetheart," Craddock said. He could tell the dog had recently given birth, but because she was dehydrated and malnourished, her milk had dried up.

"After we gave her a bunch of food and water, she started producing milk again. So, we figured if she’s making milk, her pups can’t be that old. You could see her ribs and she was eating any scrap of food we gave her," Trevor Jennings, a friend of the groom, told The Dodo.

"We noticed she was very protective of a certain spot in the woods, especially at night," Jennings said. They discovered a large hole filled with a litter of seven puppies. "We set each pup individually down in front of her and she nuzzled their faces and she checked out the pups and to the person holding them, she gave the look of 'It's OK, I trust you,'" Craddock said.

Despite the fact that the puppies had to be washed to remove dirt and fleas. "We washed all the dogs, as they were dirty and full of fleas," Jennings said. Craddock was surprised by how healthy they were. "Every single one had a big fat belly on them. The mom had given the pups literally everything she had," Craddock shared. "We pooled a bunch of money to buy food and beer. After the third day, our beer fund turned into a puppy food fund," he said.

The groom and his groomsmen or their relatives adopted all eight dogs, including the mother. Their new happy homes are within a 5-mile radius of one another. Craddock and his groomsmen had not anticipated having to care for puppies at their bachelor party. Kristen Olson, his wife, was overjoyed that he was bringing home a new puppy and Craddock had no regrets. "I proposed to her with our chocolate Lab and now it’s our joke that for any of our big life events, we’ll get a dog," Craddock said.

Craddock's grandparents adopted the mother and named her Little Orphan Annie, and one of her puppies. Manchester named his dog Rosey after discovering her in a brier patch. Brimmie was named after Brimestone, a nearby recreational park where the men camped. Knox came after Knoxville because it was so close. Gunner's new father is an avid hunter. Finn's father works as a fisherman. Daisy, like the flower, is all white and Bear just looked like a bear.

Craddock told USA TODAY that the night before their wedding, he and his friends brought the dogs to the wedding rehearsal dinner. "It was definitely not what we had expected to happen when we loaded up and headed eight hours to spend a week together," Jennings said. "We were all glad when we could help Annie and her pups - it also seemed meant to be that we came back to Michigan: eight dogs and eight guys." Craddock added, "They were all playing together and glad to see each other," Craddock said. "I'm sure they'll be life-long buddies. Just like all of us."