Pilot Flied 400 Miles With An Old Dog To Find Her A Home Where He Can Be Cared For And Loved For The Rest Of His Life

Ashlyn was an old dog at a shelter in North Carolina — and she really wasn’t doing well.

She’d dropped a ton of weight and she suffered from sarcomas — cancerous tumors under her skin. Yet it wasn’t too late for her to have a stroke of luck.

When people at the New England Humane Society (NEHS) discovered someone with a perfect home where Ashlyn could spend the last few weeks of her life, she just needed a way to get there. So Paul Steklenski, founder of Flying Fur Animal Rescue (FFAR), decided to fly her up in his plane.

As he flew the plane with Ashlyn in the seat beside him, Steklenski started getting emotional thinking about how this might be her last ride anywhere.

Even though he’s used to flying needy dogs to rescues so they can get the homes they deserve — he usually tranSports about 15 to 30 dogs per month — the senior dogs particularly pull at Steklenski’s heartstrings. “Those are the ones where you focus even more on what they’re going through,” Steklenski said.

At the beginning of the two-hour ride, Ashlyn was a bit hesitant. “She started off a little bit distant,” Steklenski said. “Then she would kind open up a bit, and she got closer.”

The dog biscuits he fed her definitely helped her feel more comfortable. “Then she gave me one paw and then the other,” he said.