Race For Life Rescue

FLIGHT #2 on our epic rescue weekend! 🐶🐱 51 dogs, cats and kittens, met us in Georgia this morning, thanks to BISSELL Pet Foundation and Cathy Bissell ❤️

Our second flight returned to Minnesota, where amazing shelter teams were waiting to welcome these sweet souls.

Today, 23 dogs and 28 cats will have beautiful, bright futures…bringing our weekend rescue total to 111 ANIMALS SAVED! ✈️🐾🩵

It’s an EPIC RESCUE WEEKEND! 🎉🐶🐱 Thanks to BISSELL Pet Foundation and Cathy Bissell OVER 100 animals are flying with us from Georgia to Minnesota on a life saving journey! 🐾🩵🩷

Here are some of the 60 adorable, and ADOPTABLE, animals we had the pleasure of having as passengers today! ☺️

Tomorrow…we’ll be right back in Georgia for flight #2…stay tuned! ✈️

This morning is all claws in clouds! 57 sweet kittens and cats flew with us from Chattanooga, TN to Bedford, MA. Some will call Massachusetts home, while others will make their way to Nee Hampshire.

Thanks to the ASPCA these new, New Englanders have a bright, safe and happy future ahead of them. We’re thankful to have been a part of their journey! ✈️ 🐱 🧡

Transport prep on a beautiful morning in Baton Rouge!

🎉 HOORAY for this HUMP DAY ONE HUNDRED! 🐶🐱

It was a busy morning in Baton Rouge, as 62 dogs and 44 cats were ready to board our plane for brighter tomorrows in the northeast!

These 106 adorable ~ and adoptable! ~ animals were welcomed by incredible shelter teams from Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. These amazing adoption center will help them all find loving homes soon!

We loved having them all onboard today! A+ passengers. 🩷✈️

Meet Jim DeFrancesco!

Jim is our lovely founder and chairman here at Race for Life Rescue. His interest in becoming a pilot began at a very young age. He was fascinated by the combination of skill, discipline, technology, and freedom that comes with flying, and he took up flying as a hobby throughout his young adult life. While his professional career as an
entrepreneur took him in a different direction, his passion for flying remained strong throughout his adult life. This combination of his work, his passion, and his love for animals led him and his wife, Pam, to found Race for Life Rescue.

Like most professional pilots, Jim’s preflight ritual involves preparation and consistency. He goes through standard checks of the airplane, evaluates the weather, and ensures the crew is prepared before lift-off. His most memorable experience as a pilot occurred
during a Race for Life mission following Hurricane Ian. While nothing particularly exciting happened during the flight, it shifted how he viewed what aviation could accomplish and “helped transform an idea into an organization that has since flown over 12,000 animals to safety.”

Jim and Pam have always had a dog in the family. Currently, they have a Maltipoo named Daisy. At five months old, she was surrendered to a shelter after her back leg was broken due to children roughhousing.
She originally came to them as a foster, but they fell in love at first sight and decided to adopt. Daisy has become a much-loved addition to the family, and reminded Jim that each animal that Race for Life Rescue helps has the potential to become someone’s Daisy: “…the pet sleeping next to someone at night, greeting them when they come home, traveling with them, comforting them during a difficult period, and becoming part of the family.”

It was a rainy morning in Baton Rouge, so 57 special dogs and 5 precious kitties were given VIP status and treated to some dry hangar time before boarding our plane, bound for New York! 🗽🍎

These sweet 62 included a six year old Saint Bernard named among, and two mackerel tabbies named S’mores and Hershey!

We wish them all the best and brightest in their new lives! ✈️🩷🐶🐱

We’re still honoring our aviators! And we’re kicking off this week with Zach. Although he’s quiet and appears a bit serious, he delivers some zingers when you least expect it and has a great sense of humor. Thanks for keeping us laughing, and most importantly flying safely.

Zach has had quite an exciting career as an Alaskan bush pilot and Medevac, and we’re happy to have him on our team.

The Wright Brothers may only be known for their pioneering, but a shared love for their dogs was a vital aspect of who they were.

Wilbur’s dog, a mixed breed named Flyer, was adopted during the summer of 1908 while the Wright brothers were working on their airplane in France. Flyer traveled across Europe with the brothers and is widely believed to have been the first dog to fly in an airplane, although
there is no official record of the event.

Orville’s dog, a Saint Bernard named Scipio, was adopted in 1917 from Nina Dodd’s White Star Kennels in Long Branch, New Jersey for $75. Scipio was adored by Orville, which is made clear by the sheer number of photographs of Scipio, as well as of them together. Upon Orville’s death, one photo was found in his wallet, and it was of his beloved Scipio, who had passed away decades before Orville. No one knows for sure where Orville Wright’s beloved St. Bernard, Scipio, is buried.
But historians speculate that Orville may have had the dog laid to rest in his family plot at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.

So next time you book a flight with your furry friends, know that even the first pilots were not immune to the love of an animal companion!

If you enjoy learning about stories like these, as well as our adventures in animal rescue, help support our work today. Become part of the team and ensure animals in need find second chances.

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