Cloud Nine Rescue Flights

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Several months ago, Cloud Nine was contacted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW – www.ifaw.org) to discuss the possibility of working together on some projects they had coming up. For those who aren’t familiar with IFAW, they are a worldwide organization that addresses animal welfare issues. In this case, they were working on their Northern Dogs Clinic. For the 8th straight year, Jan Hannah and her team of volunteer veterinarians and techs were preparing to serve the Cree communities in remote northern Quebec that are highly isolated and don’t have access to veterinary services, because veterinarians simply don’t exist there. The focus is on animal health and spaying and neutering.

The clinic is divided into two parts, the first one in May, serving Chibougamau and surrounding areas, and the second one being in June starting at Chisasibi and working down south towards Waskaganish. If you haven’t heard of these places don’t feel badly, because I certainly hadn’t either prior to being contacted about this trip!

This was the first half of the transport, for which I flew into Montreal on Friday the 14th to pick up the veterinarians and technicians, and we flew to Chibougamau to drop them off. On Wednesday the 19th, I returned to pick them up and bring them home. Jan offered to let me stay for the weekend to see what the clinic was like and assist, however I was unable to due to prior commitments. However I wasn’t about to turn down that opportunity for the June clinic! More on that when the time comes.

Canada isn’t a place that I’d had the opportunity to spend much time, but it is a beautiful country with very friendly people. Even Montreal tower welcomed us to Canada upon landing. This trip was very quick and didn’t allow for much in the way of taking in what there was to see, but on the next trip I got to see some more of the towns up north. As a hint, I believe they’re very worth visiting, especially if you like going to places off the beaten path.

I’d also like to extend a special thanks to Jan Hannah and IFAW for allowing Cloud Nine to be part of making the Northern Dog Clinic a success, and to the dedicated team that volunteered their time to help the animals in these northern regions.

Blue Skies,

-Ted

30 dogs! Yes, we had 30 in the Aztec. While this isn’t a record breaker and we’ve done it before, it is higher than our typical numbers. On average, we transport 15 dogs per flight. I always enjoy transports like this one where we’re able to save a larger number of lives.

This transport originated with a request from Heather Kyte of Annie’s Place, a rescue located in Manchester, NH. Annie’s Place does a great job of finding homes in the north for some great dogs that would otherwise be euthanized in the South due to overpopulation. For this transport, she was pulling dogs from a shelter in Tuscaloosa, AL. Most of the dogs being pulled were puppies, which left some additional room in the plane.  Kylie Troy of Animal Adoption League always has animals to head up north, especially to Manchester, so she was able to fill the rest of the transport.

Friday night after work (yes, I do have a Monday through Friday job) I flew down to Tuscaloosa and spent the night there. Saturday morning we got to the airport first thing to load up the dogs from Tuscaloosa, which came from multiple local shelters and rescues, all converging on the one flight. Rock Hill represented a good place for a fuel stop and where we picked up the remaining dogs from Kylie. These dogs were some special cases going to Susannah Chance of New Hampshire Humane Society.

I love putting puppies in the cage right behidn where I sit in the plane. When I do, I get to look back and either put out a hand to get licked and give the puppies some affection, or just get to watch them sleep. For me, doing that is the best reminder of why what Cloud Nine does is so important. There is no doubt in my mind that the dogs know when we load them up that they know something good is going on. They may not know what exactly, but they know that it’s someting.

The transport was a success and we managed to save 30 lives in the process. Additionally, this was our first time working with Annie’s Place, who proved to be an excellent group to work with and I hope we will have the opportunity to work with again in the future.

Blue Skies,

-Ted

We’ve been going flat out on transports since early April, having done 9 flights total and only three weekends off, including one flight in the middle of the week. I’ll catch up on talking about those more later, but now a bit about this transport and pictures of some of the lives saved, now happily living in their forever homes.

Rhonda Sims, founder of Freedom Train Animal Rescue Transports, had a large number of dogs that needed to be transported to Manchester Animal Shelter in Manchester, NH. Additionally, Kylie Troy of Animal Adoption League had a few that needed to be transported to Susannah Chance of the New Hampshire Humane Society. As Rhonda had the majority of the dogs for the transport, we met in Anderson, SC for the pickup, loaded up the dogs, and flew north.

Upon getting to Manchester, rather than going straight home I spent the night in Keene, NH (close to Manchester) with Stephen Bryan, one of the members of Cloud Nine’s Board of Directors. Cloud Nine has board members and volunteers all around the country, and we rely heavily on the internet and phones to communicate and get work done. However it’s always preferable to meet in person whenever we can to discuss where we are and where we want to be going forward. We had a good meeting, and the next morning I made it back to Williamsport.

Thanks to everyone who made this transport another success! I’d also like to mention that Rhonda’s book, Fur Tales, was recently published.  A portion of all proceeds from book sales go to help the efforts of Freedom Train. Check out her website and buy a copy at: http://www.freedomtraintransports.com/

Lastly, I’d like to thank our anonymous donor who made this transport possible. The two April transports were funded by this donor. Would you like to sponsor a transport (anonymously or openly) and save the lives of animals on death row in need of homes? Contact us at http://www.cloudninerescueflights.org/ to find out how!

Blue Skies,

-Ted

I’m happy to report how busy Cloud Nine has been with transports. While funding has been (and still is) a continual challenge, we have been continuing to perform as many transports as possible to get as many animals saved as we can. This one was another successful transport between Animal Adoption League in Rock Hill, SC and Manchester Animal Shelter in Manchester, NH.

It seems like there are a lot of transports that we do going from Rock Hill to Manchester. Well, there are some reasons for that! First off, Animal Adoption League and the people in Rock Hill are very easy to work with. They work hard to fight animal mistreatment in the area and lower the number of highly adoptable animals that get put down due to overpopulation in the area, and make for transports that always go smoothly and without a hitch. The animal overpopulation in North and South Carolina is of epidemic proportions, some of the worst in the country, making for no shortage of highly adoptable animals that have homes waiting for them in other parts of the country.

Likewise, Manchester Animal Shelter is an excellent receiver that knows the routine and consistently makes transports simple. While the Carolinas have massive overpopulation problems, New Hampshire has its animal population under very good control. When animals are transported to Manchester, frequently they have loving adoptive homes waiting for them, with the receiving families waiting at the airport for their new pets to arrive. Rock Hill and Manchester are two examples of why there is such a need for these transports, and why they work so well.

I’d like to thank Animal Adoption Leauge and Manchester Animal Shelter for their continued hard work and making it possible to save as many lives as we do working together. Additionally, I’d like to thank an anonymous donor who made this transport possible. While this donor wishes to remain anonymous, the impact made is certainly anything but, especially to the 13 dogs saved.

This was another great transport, and I look forward to the next one!

Blue Skies,

-Ted