November Rescue Mission

Dog being lifted from plane. (Source: Wings of Rescue).

Last year we had one of our biggest successes to date with our first rescue flight of 28 dogs arriving in November, 10 of whom were  going to be settling in Vancouver Canada, while the other 18 were heading out to Calgary.

The mission was carried out in collaboration with  rescue organizations, Embrace A Discarded Animal Society and Rescue Friends Animal Foundation.

From the start, there were so many setbacks we had with this particular rescue mission. We first had to overcome export policy changes in China, challenges and restrictions that arose from the pandemic and finally, the floods.

B.C. floods. (Source: CTV News).

There was an EXTREME, once in a 500-hundred year flood that hit British Colombia, just in time for the arrival of our dogs.

We couldn't believe the bad timing. The original plan had been to have volunteers from Rescue Friends transport our Calgary-bound dogs from Vancouver by car. However the floods and the extreme damage caused to the roads made that completely impossible.

Flood damage in BC. (Source: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward).

We had no idea how we were going to get our dogs home.

If we couldn't get to Calgary, we’d have to find somewhere else for our dogs to stay. Until the floods had stopped and the damage had been fixed, we needed to find enough volunteers to divide our 18 dogs amongst, not an easy feat. It was especially worse given the incredibly short notice.

Things were looking pretty bleak at this point, and we were starting to scramble to find temporary boarding places where we could put them up until we could arrange an alternative route to Calgary.

Miraculously, we experienced a stroke of luck. We had a guardian angel step in, in the form of Wings of Rescue, a local rescue organization that works in flying dogs across the country to their forever homes.

Wings of Rescue offered to fly our dogs the distance from Vancouver to Calgary! 

We couldn’t believe it. Thanks to them our dogs made it safely, and the mission turned out to be a success. Words couldn’t express how grateful we were for their help during this time of crisis. Even CTV news also covered the story, which you can find here.

Pictured below are some of our beautiful dogs who arrived in Canada. All of them now in wonderful, loving homes.

This was definitely a significant milestone in our rescue goals, and we're so grateful to, not only Embrace A Discarded Animal Society and Rescue Friends Animal Foundation, but also the incredible Wings of Rescue.

 From here, it was onto the next rescue mission!