Daily Sun News
John Fannin
October 26, 2011

Frannie was just six weeks old when someone dumped her off at the Pet Health veterinarian office in Sunnyside.

“Someone left her by a fire hydrant,” said Sarah Bull, an assistant at the vet clinic.

Frannie, a pit bull-mix, has come a long way in the month or so since then, and yesterday she traveled by plane to her new home on Camano Island.

Tuesday’s take-off from the Sunnyside Airport was made possible by a national organization called Pilots N Paws, which matches volunteer pilots with rescue animals needing transport.

Frannie, Photo by Daily Sun News

Rebecca Roberts is a local resident who contacted Pilots N Paws because no area shelter would take Frannie with her pit bull mix.

“It’s sad that there’s a stigma attached to pit bulls. I don’t know what all (breeding) she is, but I know she’s deserving of a good home,” Roberts said.

Roberts found a Camano Island shelter that would take Frannie, a friendly brown pup with white paws and a white-tipped tail.

That led to a contact with Pilots N Paws.

Roberts says this is the second dog this year that she has helped literally fly away home thanks to Pilots N Paws.

For volunteer pilot Bruce Williams of Seattle, flying Frannie is a pleasure. The Pilots N Paws flyer just a week ago took an abandoned pup from Boise, Idaho to a shelter in Oregon.

He noted FAA standards require at least three take-offs and landings every 90 days in order for him to stay current as a pilot and flight instructor.

Pilots, he smiles, often joke about “$100 lunches,” flying somewhere for a burger to help meet the take-off and landing requirement.

Not bad views enroute

He says meeting those requirements with a needy animal in tow is much more rewarding.

“I love dogs and cats and I might as well do some good in the process,” Williams said.