Thank you to Pilots Jeff Spencer of Alabama  and Devon Barger of Florida for making this life saving flight!

“Pilot Jeff Spencer from Huntsville is a member of the rescue group Pilots N Paws, an organization of pilots who volunteer their time and their planes for animal rescue delivery.

Smith is excited, there’s yet another way to find homes for animals that otherwise face overcrowded facilities and adoption rates that are far from ideal.

She found the organization through the Florida group, which uses the service often, she said.

“I plan to use them more in the future,” Smith said. “It makes the travel time faster and areas further away can be considered for the animals we get.”

Already, Smith and members of the Talladega based volunteer group HART (Homeless Animal Rescue Team) have worked with land transport volunteers to get animals to the groups who have homes for them.

But having access to another way of getting animals from point “A” to point “B” is outstanding, Smith said.

The group of puppies included a litter of five German Shepherds who were 12-weeks-old, four Great Pyrenees who were about nine-weeks-old and a single pup believed to be a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog mix and about 16-weeks-old.

The transport services along with local volunteers who can offer foster care until rescue group and transport issues can be worked out are critical to placing more animals in permanent homes.

Spencer met another volunteer pilot in Bainbridge and the dogs were unloaded and off on the second leg of their trip.

”I was really impressed with the rescue and with the trip,” Smith said.

“And I plan to use them more in the future. The pilot I met said he would love to work with us again.”

Rescue groups and animal shelters can go to the Pilots N Paws web site and post requests for transport, and the volunteer pilots will respond to make arrangements, Smith said.