Four Pilots N Paws volunteer pilots, Jon Wells, Michele McGuire, Elliott DeGraff and Margery Gans all worked together along with ground transport to cover lots of miles and save 5 lives.  Here is the story…….

Part 1

The story of the 4 pups as told by Roie Griego, president of FOHA based out of New England.   “I received a distress message  about this LA shelter that had a Boston mix mom and 4 pups that were going to the gas chamber.

Mama and her precious pups!

  This shelter does not have a website and does not adopt to the public so their only chance was rescue.  After much wrangling I was able to convince the shelter we were legit and to allow us to pull them rather than gas them to death!

First pilot Jon Wells hugs a pup!

Delaine Henry kindly pulled the dogs for us and got them to a vet for safekeeping and vet care.  My good friend Rocky Gates in LA helped get them to her vet for spays/neuters/boarding and is now keeping mom Lainie for me while she goes through heart worm treatment.  Demi at the vet’s office called me after a week of them being boarded at her vet and asked if she could take them home and foster until transport.  I was thrilled and said yes! – she fosters for Rocky sometimes so I knew she was great!

Pups play tug-a-war and pilot Elliott's overnight slumber party!

Rocky kindly helped get them to my good friends Donna Farmer in AL with Evelyn Bibb’s help and then got them to the airport for us.
Then all the help of Marlana and the super pilots flying these pups – unbelievable!!!
This was more than a team effort – this was a miracle.

Volunteer Pam helps load the pups!

Aren't we supposed to be in the plane, not on the wing??

Part 2

Who’s Next?  Loveable Zeb, now known as Jet!

Zeb jumped on this transport at Reidsville, NC.  

He showed up as a stray with another dog, a yellow lab, the last of Oct/first of Nov. 2010.  Animal control caught the yellow lab but could not catch Zeb. One morning, Deb, soon to be Zebs’ foster mom, saw two guys that were stopped in front of her house. She walked out to see what they were doing. They were trying to catch Zeb.

Zeb/Jet and foster mom Deb

They asked if he was her dog and he wasn’t and he wasn’t their dog either. He was a stray that had been roaming the area. The two guys were having problems trying to get hold of him so Deb offered to go back into her house to get a crate for them. When she walked back out, one of the guys had his rifle out. It appeared that he was going to shoot the dog. Deb stopped them and said she would take him. The guy said that he was not going to shoot the dog; he was going to shoot the rifle in the air to scare him. Of course this does not make sense since they were trying to catch him. Go figure!

Zeb giving ground transport volunteer Peggy a kiss!

Deb took Zeb in as a foster and made contact with local rescue groups in helping to find someone to take him in. She already had 9 dogs of her own and did not need nor could she afford another one. Plus out of 9 dogs, 7 of hers are dominating males that think they own the place. This made it rough on keeping Zeb since the males were mean to him but the females were fine. One of her females and Zeb played together all the time and became best buddies.

Zeb meets pilot Michele who made sure he had his MuttMuffs on!

Between two rescue groups, we have cross posted Zeb numerous times without any interest. It seemed that other groups did not care for a black dog, over a year old. He was up to date on all vaccines, hw negative, neutered house and crate trained but still he was a black dog that is over a year old.  Deb’s health was starting to go downhill and she was recently released from her job, this made it even more urgent to find a rescue group to take Zeb. At one point, Zeb was boarded at a kennel but Deb felt so bad and missed him so much that she asked to have him back until we could find a group for him.  Finally, I searched the internet for specific groups that rescued only black dogs.

Co-pilot Cheri of team Muttmuffs gets a hug from sweet Jeb!

The last leg of the journey with Pilot Margery, all aboard!

Walk this way, all arrive safely!

Update:

Jessica H.
Black Dog Rescue