Shelter receives dogs from Louisiana
Posted: Monday, November 26, 2012 8:11 am | Updated: 5:18 pm, Mon Nov 26, 2012.
Louisiana dogs Violet and Vinnie make friends with Elena McGovern at the Marianna Airport Sunday. In an unusual twist, the dogs were flying from Louisiana to a new home in Florida while McGovern was flying home to Louisiana from Florida with her family. Also pictured are Partners for Pets Shelter Manager Debbie O’Quinn, left, and Pilots N Paws aviator Jeremy Craven.
Posted on November 26, 2012
by Mark Skinner
A pair of puppies flew to Partners for Pets on Sunday, but it was not a display of puppy super -powers.
The dogs, Violet and Vinnie, were rescued from a shelter with an outbreak of dysentery in Louisiana. After a month in quarantine, they were flown to the Marianna Airport by Pilots N Paws participant Jeremy Craven.
Pilots N Paws uses private volunteer pilots to transport animals rescued from kill shelters to places where there is a spot in a no-kill shelter or foster home for them.
Craven, who is from Panama City, has been participating in the program for about four years and has used his plane, a four – seat Grumman AA5, to carry dogs as far as Lakeland.
Where the canine passengers ride in the plane is up tothe pilot, but all of Craven’s pet passengers ride in back seat. Smaller ones ride in pet carriers and larger ones are hooked to a seat belt tether.
Bigger dogs will still slobber down his neck, he said.
However, he added, Violet and Vinnie were great passengers.
“I didn’t hear a peep out of them,” he said.
Violet and Vinnie were picked up by shelter manager Debbie O’Quinn.
O’Quinn said the shelter has taken in 10 or 12 animals from Pilots N Paws, with the largest group being a litter of Dalmatian puppies.
