A Piper Aerostar landed at the Princeton Airport last Monday to make a special delivery to Shea Evans, resident of Hedley, B.C.
Evans, a former resident of Princeton is a youth counsellor who has been on the hunt for the perfect companion to assist her in her work.
“I’ve been looking at various rescues and SPCA’s for about a year now, and nothing has felt right,” said Evans,” until I saw the picture of her—and that was it,” she said.
Her is an Australian Shepphard-St. Bernard Cross three month old puppy currently called Gemma, that Evans adopted from Lend A Paw Animal Rescue located in Battleford, Saskatchewan.
“When I saw her, It was instant,” said Evans, “she will be my buddy and I am going to train her to be my therapy dog—to help me with my work.”
Evans and Gemma were introduced to each other at the Princeton Airport at noon, via members of PNPC Animal Rescue aka Pilots N Paws Canada.
Alex and Elizabeth Bahlsen along with friend Eric Kjinserdahl were quite pleased to provide the transport of Gemma and to introduce her to her new owner, Shea Evans. They seemed to share an instantaneous bond—both the pup and Evans were quite happy to see each other.
The Bahlsen’s who enjoy flying heard about Pilots N Paws Canada and Alex decided to join the forum. ‘I like dogs and I like flying, so I volunteered,” said Bahlsen.
“She (Gemma) was a great traveller”, he added, “she just hopped right into the plane.”
Pilots N Paws Canada is an online line venue to connect people that run rescues, shelters and/or foster homes for animals with pilots who are willing to assist with transportation of the animals.
Based on the format of Pilots N Paws from the USA, Vancouver B.C., resident, Gini Green launched Pilots N Paws Canada in June of 2012 to organize air transport in order to provide support to Canadian shelters and rescue organizations which in turn, would give animals a wider opportunity for adoption to good loving homes.
If you are not a pilot and would like to help somehow, you can still assist by volunteering to become a “Petscort” which means that you could volunteer to add a rescue animal to your ticket on a commercial flight in Canada and deliver an animal to its new home. It is easy to do, You can find the Petscort program on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PETSCORTS).
Just “Like” the Facebook page and then you can send a message using the ‘Contact Us’ button and let them know you would like to volunteer and of your upcoming flight plans.
Animals transported via air suffer much less stress in transport than on ground transport and arrive to their destinations much faster. This also saves rescue groups time, funding and resolves some coordination issues.
Shea Evans says she is the “luckiest human in the world.” Not only is the pup the best dog ever, “she was hand delivered by angels....thanks to all who helped make this perfect match happen!”