Thank you Pilot Wade for sharing your story of adopting your 5th rescue dog, Snags (because of her teeth)!

“I got involved in a mission to get a mutt terrier from the San Bernardino, CA shelter to an adopter in Alexandria, VA. I involved a couple of other pilots, but some of the legs just weren’t coming together (holidays). The adopter emailed me and she was frustrated and giving up. I called her and said I’d pay to have the pooch transported on United (less $ that I’d’ve spent on avgas for my leg),” said Wade.

Ultimately the adoption fell through. The shelter had Wade’s number and called to say they were going to put the little girl down.

Wade continued telling his story, “At that point, I felt already involved with the pooch and could not let that happen. I found a volunteer who got her to a vet for spaying, vaccinations and boarding, and who then got her on a United flight from Ontario, CA to Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, TX. Picked her up Thursday night, and slowly introducing her to the rest of the pack.”

Wade and his family welcomed this new rescue into their home. “I Persuaded my wife to agree by telling her that it was all I wanted for my birthday and Christmas,” Wade said.

When asked about the rest of the rescue pack, Wade said, “Snags joins Cessna, a 10-year-old Schnoodle who strayed into a hangar at my home airfield; Fifinella, a two-year-old Shih Tzu who was one of four dogs I flew this summer from Austin, TX to Russellville, AR (I ended up flying back home with her); Pif, an 11-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback mix I adopted from Chicago Anticruelty when I was living and teaching at a college there; and Rufas Thibodeaux, a five-year-old Tibetan Terrier I got from the Pasadena, TX pound. I gave Rufas a Cajun name. The Shih Tzu resembled a gremlin, so I named her after the flying gremlin heroine in Roald Dahl’s “Gremlins,” (illustrated by Walt Disney Studios in the 1940s; the illustration became the logo of the U.S. Women’s Air Service Pilots). Fifinella, the Shih Tzu, was featured in the most recent issue of the International Women’s Air & Space Museum newsletter.”

Fifinella after the heroine in Raold Dahl’s classic WWII children’s book “Gremlins,” about little flying gremlins that protect Allied fighter pilots in Europe during the war. Walt Disney Studios illustrated the book back in the 1940s, and one of the images of Fifinella became the logo for the Womens Air Service Pilots (WASPs).