In this YouTube segment, Michael Schneider, founder and chief pilot of Pilots to Rescue (PTTR), reports from Triangle North Executive Airport near Raleigh as PTTR transports two Guiding Eyes guide‑dog puppies to their volunteer raisers in celebration of National Puppy Day. Schneider explains PTTR’s mission—air‑transporting at‑risk animals from overcrowded shelters and partner organizations since 2015, having rescued over 1,000 animals to date. He highlights the partnership with Guiding Eyes, a charity that provides free guide dogs to visually impaired individuals, noting that flying the puppies reduces travel time and stress for volunteers. The trip is sponsored by PAW, an online veterinary service offering 24/7 vet access, emergency coverage, and a pet pharmacy via a $24‑per‑month membership; Lana and Caitlin from PAW introduce the company and its role in supporting the transport. The segment also features Kim, a puppy raiser, who describes the upcoming 12‑14‑month raising period for the puppy (named Val/Archer) before formal guide‑dog training in New York. The video serves both as a promotional showcase of PTTR’s animal‑transport work and a celebration of National Puppy Day, emphasizing collaboration among rescue organizations, sponsors, and volunteer raisers.
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Michael Schneider here, Top Dog Pilots to Rescue. We're down here in Triangle North Executive Airport, just northeast of Raleigh, and today we're doing Guiding Eyes transports, 2 puppies to their raisers. And we're doing this for National Puppy Day in conjunction with PAWP. PAWP is a generous sponsor for today, and Lana is going to come on, or Caitlin's going to come on very soon. All right, they just requested, I received it, accept. So, um, Guiding Eyes is an amazing charity. They offer up guide dogs for vision impaired persons free of charge, and we love working with them, and we save their volunteer a ton of time driving by flying these puppies. It's actually far less stressful as well because it doesn't take as long. We have Lana and Caitlin here from POP. POP is sponsoring us today, so I'll talk a little bit about Pilots to Rescue since their audience may not be aware of us, and then you guys tell our audience a little bit about PAW.
For sure.
So Pilot Star Rescue started back in 2015. We mainly do transport for animals that are at risk. These are from largely overcrowded shelters, dogs and cats, but we also work with amazing organizations like Guiding Eyes to transport their animals. And today we've rescued over 1,000 animals. All in this tiny little plane. And I run the organization and I'm the chief pilot and love doing this work. It's extremely rewarding. So like I said, we're very happy to be sponsored by PAW today. And now I'll turn it over to Lana and Caitlin.
Hi, everyone. We're really excited to be sponsoring this trip today. We have Archer here with us who we've had the chance to cuddle all the way on the flight. So we're, we're from PAW. We're an online vet. That offers a membership that allows you to get access to vets 24/7, anytime, from anywhere. You also get an alternative to pet insurance that gives you up to $3,000 to cover life-threatening emergencies, and the access to a pet, pet pharmacy that gives you also the best prices guaranteed. So all this is down to a membership that costs $24 a month. We're really excited to be sponsoring this trip today and giving up these puppies to these raisers. And we're here right now in Virginia to actually meet our raiser. Kim, do you want to say a couple of things?
Yeah, so we will have— we've got Val today, and she's going to stay, or he's going to stay with us for the next 12 to 14 months and get to learn some good house manners and how to socialize. And how to hang out with the community. And then he gets to go back up to New York and gets to get a more formal training before he goes on to do his guide work.
So cute! Amazing.
So we'll be off soon again with little Archer.
So now we're headed up to Fredericksburg, Virginia to drop off Archer to the second raiser, and, uh, that's the end of today's transport. So thanks again for joining us. Thank you for supporting Guiding Eyes for supporting Pilots to Rescue. Tomorrow's National Puppy Day, so go out to your local shelter and adopt a puppy. Thank you so much for, for joining, and we'll see you on the next one.