Two young puppies, likely a Jack Russell Terrier mix with white and brown fur and another reddish-brown coated puppy, inside a pet carrier at an indoor setting possibly in an animal shelter or veterinary clinic. Daytime natural light illuminates the scene. 4:43
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Julie sold her home to rescue dogs

Julie Covert started small, walking dogs for the SPCA in Buffalo. Then she began transporting them, once in a while at first, then more and more. more

Then she made the big move. Julie, a Hamburg native, sold her business and her home and moved south to Sutton, West Virginia. "I moved down here specifically to rescue more dogs," she says.

Her shelter takes in about 100 dogs a month, and on a typical day she takes in about six strays. Only a few find families close by. Many of the rest leave by air with Dan Drennan, a volunteer pilot with Pilots N Paws, who flies them back to rescues in Western New York.

The hard part is the numbers. "You do the best you can," Julie says. A lot of counties have no shelter or animal control officer at all, and their dogs filter in to hers. "It's difficult. Sometimes you have to pick and choose."

That's where Dan comes in, and Julie calls him a godsend. On this trip he carries more than a dozen puppies north, the heaviest about 30 pounds. As Dan puts it, the outlook for these pups wasn't good where they were.

Two young puppies, likely a Jack Russell Terrier mix with white and brown fur and another reddish-brown coated puppy, inside a pet carrier at an indoor setting possibly in an animal shelter or veterinary clinic. Daytime natural light illuminates the scene. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Julie Covert started small, walking dogs for the SPCA in Buffalo.

Dan has flown everywhere from Texas to Kentucky to Ohio and has rescued about 500 dogs, all as a volunteer. He admits he gets attached to his passengers. Still, he's always thinking about the next mission, because there are more dogs that need rides.

The puppies land in Lancaster, where Buddy's Second Chance Rescue takes over. Most of this group ended up in forever homes across Western New York.

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