A pregnant dog named Danni was scheduled to die at a North Carolina animal shelter on October 3rd. Thanks to caring folks along the east coast, Danni gave birth that day to a healty litter at a rescue facility near Philadelphia. The pups will be put up for adoption once they are old enough.

A pilot and adjunct professor of engineering at George Mason named Michael Young flew Danni, three long-eared coonhound pups, and Forest out of North Carolina the day before all were to be euthanized. Their chariot was Michael’s shared four-seat Columbia 400.

Michael and his latest rescues.

Michael’s adventures with Pilots n Paws began with the mass airlift of dogs out of New Orleans in 2010 amid the turmoil of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. What started as one flight has turned into a passion as he’s complete 20 flights since then.

Picture a clown car, and you’ll get the idea just how many animals Michael can help save in one trip when he removes the back seats. It takes some work and puzzle solving to put 17 puppies in the back of his plane. He recruits students from George Mason’s aviation club to help him on some of these flights. It takes a lot of manpower to load and exercise these guys before takeoff.

The receiving rescues usually know where the animals are going before they are saved from a shelter and taken to the airport. While this is often to foster homes where the dogs will await adoption, sometimes it just doesn’t turn out that way. Michael decided to go even further and adopt a couple of his charges, 1) a chow-Maltese pup now Molly and 2) Perry, a harrier-Tibetan spaniel mix, today known as “Biff”: Molly’s BFF.

To read the entire article in The Chronicle of Higher Education click here.