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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - ** The Broncos may be tough, hard-working professional athletes. But on Tuesday morning they showed their soft sides as the Humane Society of the South Platte Valley brought approximately 10 puppies and dogs to their Dove Valley headquarters.

Paige Elway and Anna Welker, supporters of the Humane Society and co-chairs of the Bowl n' Bark Committee, worked with the South Platte Valley Shelter to bring dogs to the facilities where the Broncos pet them, gave them treats and played fetch.

"What's great about this shelter is they take in any animal that comes their way," Elway said. "They don't discriminate at all. In fact they even take goats, lizards, horses. What they do is they house and take care of those animals until they find a forever home. The reason we're here is we're trying to raise awareness and let people know about this wonderful shelter and to please consider adopting over purchasing an animal. Although it's sometimes it's exciting to buy a puppy, it's also the best feeling in the world when you're able to rescue a pet and give it a second chance at a forever home."

In addition to raising awareness for the shelter, Elway and Welker are promoting their Bowl n' Bark event.

The event will take place at Moe's Original Bar B Que in Aurora on Dec. 8 and feature a night of bowling and cocktails with Broncos. Members of the team will be bowling team captains and proceeds from the event will go towards building a new shelter.

"They're actually renting a warehouse right now, which isn't completely suitable to be a Humane Society, they don't have drains in the floors so cleaning up after these pets is not the easiest task," Welker said. "So they're hoping to have a five-year plan and they hope to have enough money to build their own infrastructure. So we told them how we would help would be to jump-start their efforts and we're hosting our Bowl n' Bark event, benefitting the South Platte Valley Humane Society in their efforts in raising money to build."

South Platte Valley Shelter Director Leslie Maisonneuve hopes the project will be complete in five to seven years.

"Currently in our facility we think we'll just outgrow it," Maisonneuve said. "We're going to continue to bring more and more animals in from underserved communities where there's just not that base of adopters…They're really nice dogs and really great dogs."

The Welkers brought their dog, Penny, and the Elways' dachshunds Chuck and Billy were also in attendance.

"Animals to me are just something that's near and dear to my heart, especially animals that have been neglected or abused," Elway said. "I just have a huge soft spot in my heart and I just wanted to encourage people to adopt animals just to see how awesome and how much joy these babies can bring to your life."