Cloud Nine Rescue Flights

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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

One of the things I’ve tried to do with Cloud Nine is establish some reliable groups to partner with that help make for consistently good transports. It helps to have groups who understand how the transports work and what our capabilities are, and are easy to work with. Encore Pets in Beaufort, NC has rapidly become one of our favorite groups to work with. They have a well thought out structure that they apply to transports, going so far as to schedule them out well in advance.

This transport also marks the thrid that was possible thanks to a grant from the ASPCA. After the transports we had in January and earlier in March, there was still some funding remaining, which was used to fund part of this transport.

I flew down on Friday night and was greeted by the wonderful group from Encore Pets and Cartaret County Humane Society. Joanna Shertzer, one of the founders of Encore Pets, and I had a good discussion about how our respective groups were doing, and long term plans for where we saw our groups both individually and working together going. It was a good discussion, along with great company and food to match. Thank you to everyone for providing such a warm welcome!

Saturday morning we got to the airport at 9 AM as usual, and got the dogs loaded up. While 9 dogs seems like a small number, Encore Pets tends to send larger dogs that take up more space, so it ended up being a good fit in this case. The high numbers that we have for some of our transports tend to be with lots of small dogs and/or puppies, each of which takes up a small amount of space.  Since the same amount of space exists regardless of the size of the dogs, we have to adjust accordingly.

The weather cooperated very nicely, making this trip up north was an easy one, especially compared to the previous weekend. We had beautiful weather, it was a great day to fly. The dogs were great passengers as well. We got our first passengers dropped off with Pets Alive in Orange County, NY, and then on to Syracuse to drop off the remaining few, then headed back home for an easy and successful trip.

This marked our third transport with Encore Pets. I can’t say enough good things about their operation, and am proud to be working with them on transporting animals out of Cartaret County and up north. With their hard work and transport programs, they’ve managed to virtually eliminate animal euthanasia due to overpopulation in their area, which allows them to branch out and help surrounding communities which are still high-kill. This is a testatment to their hard work, and is very positive for animal welfare in their area. Getting more individual areas with animal populations under control makes it possible for them to expand and help surrounding areas, thus saving more animals and working to bring an end to the animal overpopulation epidemic in this country. We have additional transports scheduled with Encore Pets throughout the year, and I’m looking forward to being a part of them!

Thanks to Encore Pets and Cartaret County Humane Society for their hard work in making this transport a success. Also a big thanks to the ASPCA for the third transport that their grant contributed to. Without their help, these three transports would not have been possible. I am hoping that Cloud Nine will be able to partner with the ASPCA more in the future to help save the lives of more animals!

Blue Skies,

-Ted