VICTORIA -- When his puppies stop napping, Marcos will start embarking on an epic journey.

“I have to put them in the wagon,” the 10-year-old explains.

That may sound quite simple, but quests of this kind rarely are.

“It’s kind of hard to manage,” the boy’s dad, Pepe, says of his homemade wagon.

You see—and you can watch the video to see—once the cute creatures begin stirring, Pepe says that he and his son have a very small window of opportunity to transport the groggy golden-doodles before they become too rambunctious to contain in the wagon.

Pepe knows that moving this pack of 12 puppies can be difficult because he does it four to five times a day.

“Because there’s bumpy roads,” Pepe explains. “And there’s too many of them.”

When I ask Marcos how challenging it is on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being most demanding, he smiles and answers, “One.”

Perhaps there’s a discrepancy between father and son because Marcos isn’t the one actually driving the dynamic dozen. It’s Pepe who pushes the wagon—poised to ascend any summit, maneuver around any mayhem and preserve his precious cargo’s peace—ensuring the arduous journey seems effortless.

“I have to move fast,” Pepe adds. “So they don’t jump or escape.”

Marcos follows close behind. When he’s not cleaning or feeding the puppies, the boy is responsible for ensuring that every puppy who boarded the wagon from bedtime in the garage disembarks safely for playtime in the yard.

As he lifts each dog from wagon to lawn, Marcos mentions them by name: Chica, Mazzie, Mika, Miles, Blue, Ulla, Finch, Ellie, Doug Brown, Hazel, Scout and Kevin.

Once they are accounted for, Marcos prepares to complete his quest. But instead of unearthing buried treasure, or discovering lost cities, this journey has led to simply indulging in dogs.

Marcos lays on a mat in the middle of the yard followed by the puppies climbing all over him.

“They start giving me a little massage,” he smiles. “They start licking me and jumping on me!”

“On a scale of one to 10...?” I begin asking.

But before I can finish, Marcos answers, “One-billion!”