National Kitten Day Rescue!
In our second partnership to help the Kentucky River Regional Animal Shelter, the team at Amelia Air worked overtime to find foster homes for adoptable animals in the New York metro area on July 10th. Due to the easing of national COVID-19 travel restrictions, so many animals are finding themselves back in shelters, and foster families are hard to come by. Many of our typical rescue group friends are completely at capacity! So it was not without a great deal of effort that Amelia Air was able to place 13 pets with the amazing rescue group Animal Haven in New York City; having hoped to rescue so many more, our logistics team continues to press on in arranging our next full flight for August!
But what a happy coincidence it was that 12 kittens (and one dog!) got to take flight with us on National Kitten Day! We were thrilled to be saving so many kittens on a day meant to honor the fun, playful awesomeness that defines all kittens. Our founder and pilot Dean Heistad, along with Amelia Air partner and pilot Dr. Robert Allen, took off early from Leesburg, VA and headed out to Hazard, Kentucky. There, they met the wonderful Nikita Owsley of the Kentucky River Regional Animal Shelter, along with the animals waiting to hitch a ride. The kittens were grouped together in crates with their littermates: two Hopkins kittens, five Krypton kittens, four Slone kittens, Enzo the solo kitty, and the friendly standout dog, 10-month old pup Trinity. Then, it was off to the New York metro area!
On the ground waiting for Rob and Dean in northern New Jersey at the Morristown Municipal Airport was our social media and fundraising manager, Stacy Schecter. Stacy has been involved in Amelia Air behind the scenes since August 2020 running our social media accounts and operating our fundraising efforts; this was her first in-person rescue day involvement. Stacy shared her thoughts for the blog: “After working in a purely remote capacity for nearly a year, it was a wonderful experience to finally be hands on at the airport with a transport. It was so exciting to track the flight, wait for the plane to land, and create social media content from a firsthand perspective – not to mention the joy in getting to physically help unload the pets and hold the sweet little kittens when they arrived. I am so thankful to be a part of Amelia Air and as a cat lover, this was a very special first rescue for me to be a part of.”
While waiting for the plane to land, Stacy linked up with Jenny Coffey, the Director of Community Engagement at Animal Haven. She was prepared with crates to pick up the animals and take them back to Animal Haven’s facility in Manhattan. As soon as the plane landed, Stacy and Jenny met Rob and Dean on the tarmac. After a few sweet moments with the very playful Enzo and one of the Slone kittens who were ready to be out of their crates, the team loaded the kittens and Trinity the dog into Jenny’s vehicle – and it was off to their second chance at life in New York City! What a perfect way to celebrate National Kitten Day – and another successful Amelia Air mission to save pets with planes.
