Cloud Nine Rescue Flights

It’s hard for me to believe the last transport Cloud Nine performed was in the beginning of October. We’ve been anything but idle for the remainder of October, though. We spent a lot of time focusing on getting our organizational structure more sound, getting some solid plans in place to ensure transports continue, fund raising, and plane maintenance. You may recall that after much reliable service, the plane decided it was time for some TLC, which it got. I’m pleased to say that it’s back in the sky and better than ever!

Flying down to Kinston, North Carolina above the clouds

During the downtime, I talked with several people regarding getting transports going for the remainder of the year. One of them was Joanna Shertzer of Encore Pets. She initially had a request for five dogs, which then grew to 11 going to East Smithfield, PA, Middletown, NY, and Manchester, NH. Kylie Troy, an expert and finding dogs to add to any and all transports, then asked me if I might have room for a batch of 10 6-week old puppies! We always have room for puppies, especially such tiny and cute ones! Better yet, they had to go to New Hampshire!

Everyone was excited to get to go on a flight!

I invited a friend of mine from New Hampshire, Adam Bezanson, to come along on this transport. He flew to Williamsport, and we flew down to Kinston, NC on Saturday, November 14th. Adam has met me in Manchester on several of my drop-offs, and previously did a “Cloud Nine Connection” flight from Manchester up to Maine, but hadn’t been along for a complete transport. The flight down was a good one. Even though on the ground there was a fairly low cloud layer, above the clouds the sky was perfectly clear, plus we were getting a decent tailwind up at 12,000 ft. We had to shoot an instrument approach through the thin cloud layer into Kinston, and were on the ground without any problems.

"How on earth am I going to fit all these dogs in?!" We had a full load for sure!

Sunday morning we arrived at the Kinston airport bright and early at 8 AM, ready to load up our passengers for the flight up to Scranton, PA, which was a convenient point for the shelters from East Smithfield and Middletown to meet. I had the pleasure of getting to meet Joanna, who was as cheerful in person as she was on the phone and in eMails! Additionally, she presented me with some donations that her group had managed to raise to help Cloud Nine, which was greatly appreciated! At first I was concerned with the number of large dogs I saw getting walked (which was more than the 11 we were supposed to pick up). Fortunately, some of the dogs were just along for fun and not coming. Whew! There was definitely not room for 14 large dogs on the flight! One of the puppies had gotten adopted the night before, so only 9 were getting sent up north on this trip, making for a total load of 20 dogs.

Goodbye, Droopy! You're heading off to a better place!

We got to loading the plane, which was an exercise in proper packaging. While it’s fairly routine for us to fit close to 20 animals and we had 23 in for the Georgia Puppy Caravan Part II without fitment issues, but we generally don’t have 11 fairly large dogs in one transport. It took a little extra time to figure out where to put everyone, but we managed to get all 20 in! For 10 of the large dogs, the trip was going to be relatively short, only heading up to Scranton, PA. What would be 9 hours in a car ride (and more when split among multiple drivers with stops, bathroom breaks, feeding, etc.) was a short, under 3-hour flight. After an emotional farewell from many of the volunteers who were there (many of these dogs had been fostered by the volunteers who brought them to the airport), Adam and I hopped in the mighty Aztec, fired up the engines, and were in the air, heading back north.

One of the nine puppies transported from North Carolina to New Hampshire

It was another gorgeous day with perfectly smooth air and not a cloud in the sky, after a few puffy clouds low to the ground on departure. However the one significant cloud on the entire trip happened to be parked directly over the airport in Scranton, PA, requiring us to shoot an instrument approach in. Once on the ground, we were greeted by Michelle Stymacks of Animal Care Sanctuary and John from Pets Alive in Middletown, NY. After getting the dogs unloaded and sorted, we made a quick turnaround and headed back to Cloud Nine’s home base of Williamsport, PA. We still had 10 dogs on board, but that was one large dog and the 9 puppies. Adam had left his plane in Williamsport, and still had to fly home to New Hampshire, so he’d kindly offered to do yet another “Cloud Nine Connection” flight, and bring those dogs to New Hampshire. I greatly appreciated this, as it afforded me some more time to take care of cleaning out the plane and cages to prepare for next week’s transport.

Thanks to everyone who made his trip a success!

This was one of our most successful transports in my mind. Although we had a bit of trouble getting fitment figured out, we managed to get all the animals fit in the plane successfully. Additionally, we made a great new friend in Joanna, who I hope we will have the pleasure of working with again. While all of us do this for the animals that we save, having good people to work with makes it much easier and allows us to get more accomplished. I’d like to extend a great thanks to Joanna and her volunteers who came to Kinston to help out on the transport, Candace Christopherson, Lindsay Williford, Diane Degnan, Julie Tiso, Sandra Humphrey, and Adrianne Forbes. Additionally, I’d like to thank Jim and Joanne Thompson from J and J’s Homeless Pet Rescue, who sent some of the larger dogs along. Thanks to everyone for their hard work to make this transport go smoothly and save 20 wonderful dogs! Depsite popular belief, the transport itself is the least time-consuming part of the whole operation. It’s all the leg work that goes into the transport that is truly time-consuming for all involved. I’d especially like to thank Joanna for helping to bring some donations into Cloud Nine, which helps keep us flying!

In Scranton, PA to unload 10 of the animals. The other 10 will be heading on to New Hampshire.

I’d like to thank everyone who helped make this transport a success. A lot of behind the scenes and planning work goes into making these transports a success. Thanks to Joanna Shertzer of Encore Pets who I worked with on this transport, and her volunteers who came out to help load us up on Sunday, namely Candace Christopherson, Mgr. of Carteret County Humane Society; Lindsay Williford, from Live Oak Vet Hosp.; Diane Degnan, Encore Pets; Julie Tiso, Encore Pets; Sandra Humphrey, Encore Pets; Adrianne Forbes, Encore Pets. Also Jim and Joanne Thompson from J and J’s Homeless Pet Rescue, Washington, NC who brought in three of the animals, and Kylie Troy of the Animal Adoption League, who coordinated the nine puppies to fill the load, to Adam Bezanson for providing the “Cloud Nine Connection” flight up to Manchester, NH, and to the receivers, Michelle Stymacks of Animal Care Sanctuary, John of Pets Alive, Journey Ewell of Manchester Animal Shelter, and Rae Tucker, also in Manchester. Last but certainly not least, Trish Cates, who’s been volunteering with Cloud Nine and keeps us running smoothly by taking care of all the items that I don’gt have time or knowledge how to do, who came down and kept the loading going smoothly.

Thanks for flying with us! Now go find your forever homes!

We aren’t done for the year yet, though! This coming weekend I’ll be flying down to South Carolina for another transport, and we’re in the works for another transport or two in December, with one special surprise transport in the works. I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it too much, but if it happens, you’ll be sure to hear about it here!

Blue skies,

-Ted