Paul Grant shares a tale of 3 Dobermans…We heard about a mission to get three Dobermans from West Virginia to Delaware and then further north. The three were Tank – an 80lb brown Doberman, Kane – a 106lb blue Doberman, and Klutch – a 70lb black and brown Doberman. We would do the trip in three legs: WV to VA, VA to DE, and DE to the north. Due to weather preventing the first flight from WV, I flew from Manassas, VA to Winchester Regional, VA and met up with a volunteer who drove the dogs for the first leg. That was where it got interesting.

Halfway Point – KGED

I was told by the coordinator that Tank would be in a crate, for unknown reasons, and that the other two dogs would be ok on the seat. Other than that, it would be a routine trip.  When the driver showed up, my copilot and I could see Kane and Klutch in the back of her van, and we could see a brown blur of energy (Tank) nervously pacing around in his cage and barking very loudly. I asked the driver what the deal was and she informed us that:
– Tank wasn’t comfortable around male people (both my copilot and I were male),
– Tank hadn’t previously met Kane and Klutch, and
– The crate he was in belonged to the driver and wouldn’t be coming with us.

At that point I had visions of either a dogfight occurring in the backseat of the Archer, or Tank deciding to take a bite out of my head or my copilot. By then the volunteer had driven over four hours to get us the dogs, it was already nightfall, and Paul S., the second pilot, as well as Tank’s new mom were about to be waiting on me at Sussex County. This was also these Dobermans’ last chance because the rescue they came from had to get rid of them. I did a quick risk assessment and decided we had to continue the mission, after taking a few steps. First, I told my copilot, an old friend from the Army, that in the event Tank decided to take a bite while we were flying, he had to offer up his arm so that I could land the plane in the meantime. I offered him my jacket to wrap around his arm and he wasn’t amused. Unknown to him, I was only partly kidding…

Winchester Night Manager (in blue)

Fortunately, the night manager at KOKV and I had previously spoken when I landed and asked him if it would be ok to walk three Dobermans through his terminal out to the ramp. When he realized I was doing a dog rescue, he very clearly informed me that:
– He was the night manager in charge of the entire airport and made all the decisions,
– He liked dogs more than people, and
– Whatever I needed, including closing all the terminal building doors and letting the dogs run around inside to get socialized, I’d get.

I went back to him and explained the situation, and he told me no problem, let’s get all the dogs inside and close the doors, and see what happened. Tank was a little nervous at first, and the manager, my copilot, and I all sat on the floor while the three Dobermans first jumped all over each other, and then us. It was going well. The manager helped us get the three Dobermans into my Archer and we departed to Sussex County to meet up with Paul S.

Socializing the dogs at KOKV, Winchester, VA

During the flight Kane and Tank kept resting their heads on my shoulder or trying to snuggle their heads under my arm. You could almost imagine that they were expressing their gratitude for getting them to their new homes. After a brief stop to pass off Tank to his new mom, we let Kane and Klutch relieve themselves and then they were in the good hands of Paul S. who loaded them into his Archer for the trip to Allentown.

Paul S.’s leg was fairly uneventful – what stood out for him in this transport was that despite all odds nobody gave up. The first leg pilot had weather issues, so we all waited hours for last minute ground transport to get them to me. Paul S. landed in Allentown about 10:30 that night to meet the rescue; this was a transport that started at 2PM for him and didn’t end until 11:30PM. Despite all of the problems we saved 3 dogs and got the job done, and at the end of the day that’s what matters.

Beautiful dogs. Had the trip not worked out for some reason, I would have been very tempted to bring the three home with me.

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