Dog Is My Copilot: Rescue Tales of Flying Dogs, Second Chances, and the Hero Who Might Live Next Door

by Patrick Regan

  Vacaville, California–Fullerton, California

  Fullerton, California–Vacaville, California

  * Ground (car) transport leg

  Tammy Rieser has an eye for dachshunds. As a volunteer adviser for Southern California Dachshund Relief, she often consults with shelters that have taken in dachshunds, a breed notoriously uncomfortable—and sometimes ill-tempered—in shelter conditions. So in the fall of 2009, when she saw a craigslist posting from the Placer County, California, animal shelter seeking foster care for a formerly abused two-year-old dachshund, she inquired about his situation.

  Sammie’s life had gotten off to a rough start. He’d entered the shelter as a cruelty seizure, having been abused and neglected. The neglect had led to severe health problems—an untreated bite in the hind quarters from another dog had resulted in a massive infection. His tail had to be amputated, and reconstructive surgery was required on his rear end. As bad as that sounds, he was lucky. “Typically, shelter resources and expertise would not allow such major surgery,” says Rieser. “If the dog couldn’t be placed with a rescue, he would be PTS [put to sleep].”

  But the shelter staff wasn’t about to let that happen. “They rallied around Sammie, and the vets there did the surgery gratis,” says Rieser. “They loved him at the shelter; and even though they knew his medical history would make placing him in an adoptive home difficult, they were determined to try.”

  When Rieser saw Sammie on craigslist, she pressed Southern California Dachshund Relief to take him into their program. “Initially, they resisted as they were under the impression he was incontinent,” she says, “but after further review and investigation with the shelter staff, it turned out that was not the case.”

  Rieser offered to foster Sammie and drove three hours north to Auburn, California, to pick him up. Her instincts about Sammie turned out to be well-founded. “He had such a wonderful temperament and outgoing personality,” she says. “The nickname that the shelter staff had given him, ‘Wigglebutt,’ was totally appropriate. He greeted me wiggling so hard his little body was an ‘S’ curve.”

  Before finally landing in his forever home, Sammie would log some frequent-flier miles over central California.

  Once home with Rieser, Sammie quickly became one of the family, fitting in beautifully with her other dogs and cats. “He was such a joy to be around,” she says.

  Unfortunately for Rieser, their time with Sammie would turn out to be brief. Every foster volunteer knows that letting go is an inevitable part of the job. As it turns out, SCDR director Dena Delgado had found a home for Sammie about the same time Rieser was picking him up in Auburn. Delgado had also arranged for a Pilots N Paws pilot to fly Sammie to a rescue volunteer in Southern California. He would spend a week or so there, then be moved on to his forever home.

  “I was extremely sad to part with him,” Rieser recalls. “A week later, I took him to the Vacaville Airport, where we hooked up with Ed McDermott, his pilot, and off he went to Los Angeles.”

  PNP pilot Ed McDermott rounds up passengers.

  Tammy Rieser snuggles Sammie and a fellow traveler.

  McDermott remembers that meeting and the pain of the parting. “It was obvious she had become attached to Sammie,” the pilot says. “She even had him dressed up with a red bandanna for his journey. She expressed her reluctance to let Sammie go, but she knew she had to. So I told her if the adoption didn’t work out, I’d fly him back.”

  Sammie was gone, but far from forgotten. Rieser compulsively checks SCDR’s Web site to keep tabs on dogs in the rescue’s care. She felt a pang of heartache whenever she clicked on Sammie and saw his status as “Adoption Pending,” an indication that he was serving out a trial period of two weeks with his new home before adoption became official.

  “Then one day when I checked on Sammie’s adoption status, it said, ‘Available for Adoption’ again!” Rieser says excitedly. “I immediately called Dena [Delgado] to inquire, and she advised that, for whatever reason, the adopters changed their mind. I told her if that was the case I wanted to adopt Sammie. I then e-mailed Ed McDermott with Pilots N Paws and asked if, on his next transport, he would fly Sammie back up to me.”

  McDermott was as good as his word, and on December 5, 2009, little Sammie, the tailless doxie with the wiggly bottom, came winging his way back to where he once belonged—and always will belong—with Tammy Rieser.

  Today, Sammie and Tammy are near constant companions, and the little dachshund wiggles his way into the heart of everyone he meets. He even participates in the local Humane Society’s Paws to Read children’s reading program, snuggling up with primary school kids for story time as they work to improve their reading skills. “He is the first-ever dachshund to be admitted to the program,” points out his mother with unconcealed pride.

  Who says you need a tail to have a happy ending?

  Tammy and Sammie share some story time with third-grader Emma Camacho as part of a Paws to Read children’s reading program

  Out of New Orleans

  NAME: Various

  BREED: Many

  AGE: All

  TOTAL MILEAGE:

  10,000+

  ROUTES:

  New Orleans, Louisiana–Knoxville, Tennessee–Morganton, West Virginia–Caldwell, New Jersey

  New Orleans–Memphis, Tennessee–Davenport, Iowa

  New Orleans–Clemson, South Carolina–Warrenton, Virginia

  New Orleans–Nevada, Missouri

  New Orleans–Marianna, Florida

  Marianna, Florida–Tampa, Naples, and West Palm Beach, Florida

  New Orleans–Lakeland, Florida

  By the time the rising sun shimmered on the waters of Lake Pontchartrain, at least one plane had already lifted off, bound for Tennessee. Back on the ground, a squadron of pilots moved quietly among the nearly two dozen small aircraft, conducting preflight inspections. This wasn’t a military operation, but with the urgency and sense of mission in the air it might have been.

  171 dogs caught one-way flights out of New Orleans on September 18, 2010. Among those assisting on the ground were (top from left) Julliana Galli, Linda Barbaro, and Rhonda Goodland. Top right: Chris Goodland gets a good-bye kiss. Center right: PNP cofounder Jon Wehrenberg loads pups bound for Iowa.

  Pilots weren’t the only ones up early on September 18, 2010, the day of PNP’s Gulf Coast Rescue Flyway. By dawn, trucks and vans filled with dogs from the region’s overcrowded animal shelters dotted the edge of a dedicated ramp of New Orleans’s former municipal airport. A battalion of volunteers moved along the thin strip of grass bordering the airfield—each with at least one dog at the end of a leash. Petting, hugging, holding, whispering words of encouragement . . . these troops, too, were critical to the mission. By 8 a.m., dogs, people, smiles, tears, and cameras were everywhere.

  Debi Boies, cofounder of PNP, played field marshal that day, matching planes with pups and signaling pilots when it was their time to take to the sky. Rescue volunteers representing twelve different shelters sought the tail number of “their” pilot’s plane, delivered each dog’s dossier to the airmen and women, and helped load passengers. With each takeoff, the ground crew and remaining pilots erupted in a spontaneous cheer as the departing pilot dipped a wing and rose steadily through the crystalline blue sky. With each plane, another batch of lives was reclaimed.

  Hundreds of miles away, volunteers with fifteen different animal-rescue organizations in six states and the District of Columbia anxiously awaited the exiles from New Orleans. Brighter futures, better lives, and the promise of forever homes lay ahead.

  For many of the dogs, this would be only the first flight of the day. Transfers were made with other pilots in other states. In all, fifty-four planes would take part in moving dogs across the country in this one-day intensive animal-saving mission.

  “It was a perfect day,” says Boies. “We will most assuredly remember the incredible sight as the sun rose that Saturday morning in September.”

&nbs
p; Lucky dogs await loading in a climate-controlled kennel trailer.

  Departing dogs said good-bye with kisses and waves. Above: Volunteer puppy wrangler Nathaniel Rodrigue from Ponchatoula, Louisiana. Bottom right: Dawn in New Orleans on departure day.

  Participating Animal Rescues and Shelters

  Plaquemines Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), Belle Chasse, Louisiana

  Jefferson Parish Shelter East, Elmwood, Louisiana

  Jefferson Parish Shelter West, Marrero, Louisiana

  Don’t Be Cruel Sanctuary, Albany, Louisiana

  Tangipahoa Parish Animal Control Shelter, Hammond, Louisiana

  East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control Shelter, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

  Northside Humane Society, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

  Lafayette Animal Control Shelter, Lafayette, Louisiana

  Rescued Dogs Adoption Center, Mandeville, Louisiana

  Kaplan Animal Control Shelter, Kaplan, Louisiana

  St. Bernard Parish Animal Control Shelter, Violet, Louisiana

  St. Tammany Parish Department of Animal Services Shelter, Abita Springs, Louisiana

  Receiving Groups and Rescues

  Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, Washington, D.C.

  PetConnect Rescue, Potomac, Maryland

  Homeless Animal Rescue Team, Washington, D.C.

  Lakeland SPCA, Lakeland, Florida

  Humane Society of Tampa Bay, Tampa, Florida

  Humane Society of Pinellas County, Clearwater, Florida

  Suncoast Animal League, Palm Harbor, Florida

  SPCA Tampa Bay, Largo, Florida

  Humane Society of Naples, Naples, Florida

  A Second Chance for Puppies and Kittens Rescue, West Palm Beach, Florida

  PetResQ, Inc., Tenafly, New Jersey

  Friends of Homeless Animals, Princeton, New Jersey

  King’s Harvest Ministries, Davenport, Iowa

  Lab and All Breed Rescue Network, Brighton, Tennessee

  Second Chance Barnyard, El Dorado Springs, Missouri

  Special thanks to

  Subaru: Ground transportation in New Orleans, hotels for pilot volunteers, and catered breakfast.

  Petmate: Donation of all crates used during transports.

  AeroPremier Jet Center: Ramp services, fuel discounts, and welcome barbecue.

  Top left: PNP cofounder Debi Boies (left) and volunteer transport coordinator Terrie Varnado pause for a quick snap during a hectic day. Bottom: Chipmunk, the last dog to be loaded, says good-bye.

  Saving Christmas

  NAME: Christmas/Killian

  BREED: Doberman

  AGE: Puppy

  TOTAL MILEAGE:

  307

  ROUTE:

  Elizabethton, Tennessee–Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

  Hard-luck cases are something of a specialty for Donna Lohmann. Dobermans are, too. Over the years, Lohmann has fostered ten Dobermans, and along the way dealt with just about every ailment or injustice that can befall a dog. “Every one of them came in in terrible condition,” she says. “When they leave for a new home they’re just so healthy and happy. It touches your heart.”

  But it can break your heart, too. Lohmann is still haunted by one story that didn’t have a happy ending. “I took in a dog who was starved and mangy—he was a real wreck,” she remembers. “I nursed him back to health and he got adopted to a good family . . . and then ten months later he passed away from cancer.”

  After that experience, Lohmann took a break from fostering for a while, content to spend time with her two resident Dobies—a male and a female, both rescues. But she still had a weakness for hard-luck stories. One day in early 2010, she was looking at the Web site of Distinguished Doberman Rescue, located not far from her home in western Pennsylvania, when she saw a dog and couldn’t look away. “I saw this sweet face, and it reminded me of the one I’d lost,” she says. “Then I read his story and thought, ‘I have to help him.’” Not only that, she thought, “I have to have him.”

  The story went like this: On a snowy night about a week before Christmas 2009, the young (seven to nine months old) dog was abandoned outside the Elizabethton, Tennessee, Animal Shelter. He was wrapped in a blanket, starving, and unable to walk. Later that night, someone driving by saw something move on the blanket and stopped to investigate. The shelter was closed for the night, but the Good Samaritan took the dog home and returned him to the shelter the next morning.

  Seeing that the dog was of the Doberman breed, the shelter contacted the Doberman Assistance Network to ask if the rescue could take the dog into their system. DAN responded, working with a local rescue in Tennessee to pull the dog from the shelter and paying for a veterinary exam. The dog was severely malnourished, and he suffered from a bad case of mange, which had caused skin infections. The pads of his paws were so infected, in fact, that he was unable to walk. But it could have been much worse. His spirits were good, and with proper care the vet expected a full recovery. DAN held an online fundraiser to help name the dog. Members suggested a name and pledged an amount toward that name. When the twenty-four-hour contest had ended, the dog’s new name was “Christmas.”

  A week before Christmas, a malnourished Doberman was abandoned in the middle of the night outside the Elizabethton (Tennessee) Animal Shelter.

  When DAN member Sue Szyklinski, who also runs the Distinguished Doberman Rescue, a private rescue near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, put out a call for a foster volunteer, Nancy Robson offered to take Christmas in. With a foster home lined up, Szyklinski posted a transport request to the PNP forum to get Christmas from Tennessee to Pennsylvania.

  Pittsburgh-based pilots Keith and Vicki McPherson saw the request on the PNP forum and signed on to fly the entire transport. With the weather unseasonably cooperative and both Keith and Vicki on Christmas vacation, they scheduled the flight immediately. Two days after Christmas 2009, “Christmas” the Doberman arrived in Pennsylvania aboard the McPherson’s Piper Seneca II.

  The dog christened “Christmas” on December 27, 2009, the day of her rescue flight to Pennsylvania.

  According to his new owner, Christmas still doesn’t like snow and cold.

  Nancy Robson met them on the ground at Allegheny County Airport just outside Pittsburgh. Over the ensuing weeks, Christmas thrived under Robson’s care, gaining muscle mass and moving steadily toward a full recovery. It wasn’t long before Robson and Szyklinski decided that Christmas was well enough to be made available for adoption.

  That’s when Donna Lohmann entered the story. Szyklinski was delighted to hear from the veteran Doberman foster mom. “She’s a wonderful adopter,” Szyklinski says. “She treats her Doberkids just like they are her human children.”

  Lohmann decided to give her new “Doberkid” a new name shortly after adopting him. “He’s small for a Doberman—I think he was the runt of the litter—but he’s a feisty little thing, so we came up with ‘Killian,’ which means ‘small but fierce.’”

  Killian’s first year in his new home was a prolonged exercise in learning to trust again, says Lohmann. “He’s doing much better, but he is still afraid of some things—still a little skittish.” The cold December night he was abandoned may also still linger in his subconscious. “He absolutely does not like to be outside when it’s cold,” she says.

  Killian has found a mentor in Lohmann’s other male Doberman. “They love each other,” she says. “Killian follows him around the house and does everything he does. They’re always together.”

  As for Killian’s Dobie sister, “She’s adjusting,” says Lohmann. “She’s figuring out that, unlike other dogs I’ve fostered, he’s not leaving.”

  Killian, the dog formerly known as “Christmas,” enjoys the summer sun and her two adopted Dobie siblings.

  Learning to Fly

  NAME: Ed/Kite

  BREED: German shepherd

  AGE: 1 year

  TOTAL MILEAGE:

  640

  ROUTE:

  Cozad, Nebraska–Longmont,
Colorado

  Longmont, Colorado–Kanab, Utah

  The one-year-old German shepherd on the examining table had been hobbled by a mysterious malady. All anyone knew for sure was that he was “down in the back”—his hind legs had suddenly stopped working. As the veterinarian and the dog’s owner discussed his condition and his fate, the owner, a Nebraska farmer on a tight budget, made the painful decision to euthanize if the dog wasn’t back up after the weekend.

  A veterinary technician in the small-town animal clinic, Betsy Quandt, had stood by the examining table and listened to the exchange. She maintained professional composure. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard an animal’s life discussed in the exam room. But while she understood the position of the owner and the vet, she couldn’t shake the belief that this dog had more to give. When the weekend passed and the dog hadn’t improved, she asked the vet if she could have a week to try to find another option. He conferred with the owner, and they agreed. “Ed” had one week.

  “I’d recently experienced how full a handicapped animal’s life can be with an injured stray cat that I’d taken home from work several months before,” says Quandt. “I was unable to take Ed in, however, because I was allowed only one dog in my current living situation.” Instead, Quandt posted Ed’s story on handicappedpets.com, a forum she’d discovered while seeking resources for her cat.