Mission – To fly these two amazing hound dogs to new lives in a better place.
The flight for Big Mac and Willow was memorable for sure. It was the first time we had a volunteer with us on the plane and it was a wonderful experience.
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Mission – Helping a Military Family
This mission was an emotionally tough one. But a big hat tip goes out to our patrons for helping to support us to save Tonto and Ranger.
Tonoto, a female, black labrador retriever and Ranger, a male, golden labrador retriever, belong to a couple that serves on active duty in the US Air Force.
Due to ongoing, overlapping deployments they are no longer able to keep the dogs they rescued as puppies.
Over the past several years they’ve had friends keep the dogs but they don’t see their traveling slowing down anytime soon and can’t keep imposing on friends generosity
Both dogs are 5yrs old and at their age, as owner surrenders, Tonto especially because people have a misconception that black dogs are evil, and Ranger don’t have a very good chance of making it out alive of a kill shelter. North Carolina has one of the highest number of kill shelters in the county.
Steph Tjosvold, of Midwest Animal Rescue & Services in St. Paul, Minnesota agreed to bring the dogs into the rescue but needed help getting them from Raleigh, NC to Minnesota.
Steph posted a request asking for help getting the dogs to Pennsylvania by Sept. 23rd where she had already retained a pilot to fly them from PA to Wisconsin.
From Wisconsin she had a flight set to bring them into MN. Where she had forever homes already for them each.
She asked, to please help her honor their service to our country by saving their beloved dogs.
How could we refuse!!
Mission – Saving Two Dogs and Nine Puppies is the Mission of the Day
This flight and the saving of these dogs, who would have otherwise been killed for lack of shelter space, was made possible by our amazing supporters and patrons who help us out for as much or as little as they can afford. If you are not yet a supporter, click here to learn more.
Nancy a volunteer from Granville County SPARE (Shelter Partner for Adoption, Rescue & Education) and her two super cute daughters brought Danny, a Border Collie Mix, to meet us at Triangle North Executive Airport.
Danny is a happy and playful dog. He’d never met Nancy and her daughters until that morning and he was quickly rolling around and playing with them as if he’d known them forever.
Danny was at the Granville Animal Shelter in April of this year but his owners came and got him. In May, Danny was hit by a car and was found on the side of the road with a laceration on his leg. He was taken again to the shelter. This time his owners didn’t want him or couldn’t afford to treat him and told the shelter to euthanize him. That’s when Granville County SPARE came in and took Danny, they paid for the surgery on his and found a foster family that took care of him while he recuperated. We did not meet the foster family but they deserve massive hugs.
Amber was surrendered by her owner shortly after she gave birth to her pups. We are not sure exactly why but obviously the sudden explosion in dog family size was unmanageable by the previous owner. Amber was so thin and scared. She reminded us of the dogs you see on TV when the SPCA is looking for donations.
Be sure to listen to the entire podcast for a lot more information.
Mission – Getting Layla From a Kill Shelter to Service Dog Training
Layla was rescued nearly at the last minute from a shelter in North Carolina. She is a sweet dog with a great attitude and Crisis Dogs NC spotted her within an hour of he being put down.
Jude gave us a call about a wonderful dog she had rescued within an hour of her scheduled to be put down. Jude said this dog, Layla, had a wonderful temperament and she needed help getting her from Chapel Hill, NC to Dayton, Ohio where she would be evaluated and trained to serve as a service dog for a military veteran with PTSD.
So here is the podcast of her flight with us and how she did along the way.
This flight would be the longest one we had flow. The trip was about three hours each way and going to Dayton we faced some pretty stiff headwinds over the mountains of West Virginia.
Typically we fly at about 170 MPH but at times our speed was down to 113 MPH with the winds we were flying into. The weather looked a bit dicey over those West Virginia mountains and Steve was prepared for some tough instrument flying through a lot of rain and clouds. Thankfully the rain turned out to be light and the clouds we did face were not bad.
It was a dark and early morning for us. We headed out for the airport before dawn and as we approached the airport a brilliant morning sky greeted us as if to say it was going to be a good day.
Layla greeted us with a wagging tail and cuddles. Jude was right, Layla was a special dog. Before long we prepared to depart the Chapel Hill, NC airport which is owned by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. They let us land there to pickup Layla.
You’ll see in the video of her flight on the site that Layla was eager to fly with us. She jumped up in the plane and settled right in. Pam got Layla all secured and soon we were off.
