Wednesday, September 13, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
15
Pilot flies puppies to forever homes
By Jodi Schneider McNamee
Correspondent
Private pilot John Dunlap
of Sisters loves to fly and has
owned his own small aircraft,
a Cessna 180 Skywagon,
for six years. He volunteers
time maintaining backcoun-
try airstrips in Oregon as a
member of the Oregon Pilots
Association. The airstrips
support rural communities.
And now Dunlap is donat-
ing time and resources to help
unwanted animals in dis-
tant places find their forever
homes.
Dunlap left Sisters Eagle
Airport on August 24 for his
very first flight as a volun-
teer for Pilots N Paws. He
picked up two Chesapeake
Bay retriever mix puppies
at Lampson field airport in
Lakeport, California and
brought the siblings up to
Lenhart airport northeast of
Salem to their new families.
Pilots N Paws, a high-fly-
ing animal-rescue organiza-
tion, was founded accidently
in 2008 when a private pilot
offered to fly a mission of
mercy to save an abused dog
for a friend. Pilots N Paws
is now a nonprofit organiza-
tion that helps save the lives
of dogs in need. The intent of
Pilots N Paws is to provide an
environment in which volun-
teers can come together and
arrange or schedule rescue
flights, overnight foster care
or shelter.
“I was supposed to fly out
on the 23rd, but the smoke
from fires was bad enough
that I had to wait an extra
day to fly,” Dunlap told The
Nugget. “One of the volun-
teers, Terry Roy of the res-
cue group Chesapeake Bay
Retriever Relief & Rescue
that I was volunteering to
help, kept the pups for the
night.”
When Dunlap left Sisters,
he had to deal with smoke all
the way to his destination and
back.
“I got up above the smoke
at 14,000 feet by using oxy-
gen in my aircraft after about
10,000 feet. You really have
to watch the temporary flight
restriction areas. There are
boundaries around the fires
that you are not allowed to
fly near because of special
aircraft.”
Becoming a volunteer for
Pilots N Paws launched for
Dunlap after reading “Dog is
My Copilot,” a book that tells
the story behind this remark-
able organization.
“My wife, Robyn, picked
up the book one day and gave
it to me to read. I was hooked
after that,” said Dunlap. “We
both love animals and have
pets, and the book inspired
me so much that I went online
and signed up for the Pilots N
Paws program.”
Then Dunlap kept watch
on posts from rescue groups
for any need for animal
transport.
Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Relief & Rescue (CBRR&R)
came across two puppies and
wanted to rescue them.
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CBRR&R is a national
501(c)(3) nonprofit orga-
nization dedicated to pro-
viding relief and rescue to
Chesapeake Bay retriev-
ers and Chesapeake mixes.
They are dedicated to find-
ing responsible and loving
homes for Chesapeake Bay
Retrievers or retriever mixes.
“The pups were a mix
of Chesapeake retriever
and German shepherd,”
said Southwest co-regional
Director Samantha Shaw
from Carlsbad, California.
“Since it was an acciden-
tal mix the breeders did not
want, they were going to drop
them off at a local shelter,
but reached out to us first.
We fostered them until they
were old enough to post up
for adoption.
“We found wonderful
homes for each of them in the
Oregon and Washington area
and were now in need of a
pilot,” Shaw added.
CBRR&R frequently
worked with Pilots N Paws
for transporting animals
around their region.
“Our other co-director
Michelle Moebius and I cover
California, Arizona, Nevada,
Mexico, and Utah. It becomes
a challenge when the new dog
owner lives a distance away
but we have a good working
relationship with the pilots,”
Shaw said.
Shaw has been rescuing
dogs for over 20 years and
officially joined CBRR&R in
2003.
Dunlap had reached out
PHOTO BY JODI SCHNEIDER MCNAMEE
Terry Roy and pilot John Dunlap transport puppies to new homes.
to Shaw about another dog
rescue in the past that didn’t
work out, and she took down
his information in case they
might need a pilot again. And
this time it panned out.
Two fun-loving puppies
began their journey into the
wild blue yonder beginning
in Southern California.
Volunteer pilots for Pilots
N Paws, Raymond Douglas
and Wayne McClelland, flew
the puppies from Carlsbad,
California to Lampson
field airport in Lakeport,
California, where Dunlap
then flew the two pups to
Lenhardt Airpark in Hubbard,
Oregon, where their new
families greeted them.
“Anyone who volunteers
to do this is amazing. We
couldn’t do it without them,”
Shaw said. “This really opens
the door for people to go on
social media and find the dog
they want.”
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