Puppies In The Sky With Diamonds

On March 15th I had told you that the following day I would be flying and picking up a mother and her eight babies. That morning I got out to the airport and found out that the weather was not cooperating in southern Illinois. So back home I went. Frustrating, but it happens. For the past two weeks we have tried a number of times to do the flight but it always seemed like the weather was great on the days I couldn't go and horrible on the days that I could go. Finally, the clouds parted and we had a beautiful day yesterday. I was in the air by 8:30. It was such a gorgeous morning, no clouds, beautiful clear skies and no turbulence, just a dream of a flight. When I arrived in Sikeston, Missouri, Laura was in her van waiting for me with a Newfoundland and her 8 rather large puppies. Oh, they were so cute.

I got one look at the puppies and I had no idea how I was going to fit all eight puppies and their mother in the crate that I had. Thankfully Laura donated a crate and we were able to put five puppies in the smaller crate and the mother with three puppies in the larger crate.

Even the line guys got in on the action of loading the puppies.

Check out the two in the back of the crate playing away.

I love this picture. A box full of puppies. Beyond precious.

Sadly, this is not a very good picture of the mother. She is such a sweet dog. As I was flying back, I turned around to check on her. She was sitting in the cage just looking at me. I noticed that she has eyes just like my Gracie. In fact she reminded me a lot of how Gracie was when we first got her. She had also recently had puppies and was horribly thin, but she remained so sweet and so grateful for everything I did for her.

The flight back was rather uneventful except for the wonderful aroma that filled the plane. Puppies will be puppies. As I flew along I tried to think of other things like how this is nothing like how it must be to transport elephants!!! Just a quick story. A friend who flies cargo out of New York was telling me about a flight where they actually flew elephants. The flight didn't last very long. The elephants were chained in the back. As they were taking off the elephants began to move and started to bellow as elephants do when they are about to charge. The pilots made the fast decision to quickly return before they became a flying torpedo headed for the ground. Yikes. I can put up with a little smell any day.

So now for the funny part of the day, at least I have learned to find it funny. Another pilot walked up as we were loading the dogs and was naturally curious. He asked a number of questions and then he asked the two lines guys which one was the pilot. Believe me, this happens all the time. They looked up at him and pointed to me and said, "she is." He was stunned. And then those magical words, "well, you don't look like a pilot, you're too well dressed and you're wearing diamonds in your ears."