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River, a dog destined for greatness!

catmandu

Well Known Member
We went from three dogs to none, and my wife said no more until we are 80 so we can drop everything and jump in the RV and travel. Can't argue with that too much!

But I still need a dog fix from time to time, so I have decided to look for PNP trips where an overnight stay with the dog would be prudent. You know, for safety reasons, too many legs in one day and all that. :rolleyes:

Today I flew down to Georgia in my -6a and picked up River. A four month old Golden and Labrador Retriever mix, he is on his way to be a service animal for Delta Dog. Awesome pooch, he mostly slept until we passed over some building cumulus and wallowed around a bit, which got his attention. So I opened the top hatch of the crate and gave him some love.

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It has been a great afternoon and evening playing with him. A bit too rough in the Chesapeake Bay to 'baptize' him as all retrievers should, but lots of fun nonetheless. He is a tough one to give up, especially when after dinner he casually cruised into the under-desk cubby hole my departed Golden loved so much.

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Dang this summer pollen, my eyes are watering up.

Off to New Hampshire in the morning, this dog has work to do!
 
We went from 2 dogs to 3 when a skin-and-bone stray showed up at our stables. Two months of steady food while staying in and around the barn, a trip to the vet for the "fix" and he's doing well. In the interim my wife decided she wanted a Golden Retriever. I had one when we met back in the mid-90s and he was an awesome mate. We found some Golden-Doodle pups and now have a 4th dog: Amazing Grace (aka Gracie).

I too like to jump into my RV and go on trips but the wife doesn't like to fly and she has several horses that require a lot of daily assistance. I joke that they eat money on one end and create work at the other :D
 
Thank you for providing this service.

I'm a PnP pilot, but never heard of this group & looked them up.
They are based in my hometown of Hollis.
I told my family about them & they will look into helping them out.

Keep up the good work! That's quite a trip from GA.
 
Heartwarming stuff. Thanks for the post from Australia.
What brand of dog carrier do you use that fits in the back of the RV-6?
 
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Dog crate: Soft sided one from Amazon.

For my -6a, the 30" model was just a bit too big, so I went with the 26". 50 lb dog is my limit, just because of the volume available. I put a piece of plywood in the cargo area, on top of an empty cardboard box that the 4 x one gallon oil comes in (has an extra center support), laying sideways. A moving blanket on top of the plywood for comfort. That puts the upper 'windows' of the crate high enough that tall enough dogs can see out at least a little bit.

Takes a little bit of geometry manipulation to make it all come together (I 'assemble' the crate in the cargo area), and to get the larger dogs to go in the side access hole. I normally fly solo with the crate, so I shift it over to the passenger side to keep the pilot side shoulder harness from being restricted. When there are two in the plane, you have to forgo the raised platform deal, or live with shoulder harness tethers that are off center.
 
Went to Nashua and back yesterday to drop River off. Took a pilot friend along to show her how to fly the Hudson along the way.
 
FWIW, I use a 30" folding crate when I do PnP missions.
I'm able to load & open the crate once positioned in the rear baggage area of my 7. I've cut out the crate top section & lined the rough edges with vinyl tubing. This enables me to top load dogs up to about 25 lbs.
 
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