Coming up... We're riding along with Flying Tails, an aerial animal rescue organization.

WOMAN: She couldn't move, thank God we found her.

thank God we found her.

[dog yelps] The dog had scratched [dog yelps] almost all of it's hair off.

We're dedicated to bringing both wild and domestic animals back to health.

back to health.

WOMAN: There we go.

And, in many cases, WOMAN: There we go.

finding them new homes.

My motivation comes from seeing the animals get placed back to where they belong.

[music] Discover how passionate and caring people are joining together to help save animals in need.

WOMAN: The kittens were terribly terribly, terribly burned.

terribly, terribly burned.

[cat meows] It tugs at your heartstrings.

[cat meows] It tugs at your heartstrings.

[kiss] We're really trying to step up [kiss] and become a first responder for animals.

It's a labor of love, It's a labor of love, [dogs bark] and a crucial mission [dogs bark] that is reaching new heights.

WOMAN: She's the sweetest dog I've ever had.

It's all next on Flying Tails!

Aww, who's the happy girl?

[adventurous music] [adventurous music] [plane taxiing] KEN: Tell me what we're doing KEN: today.

SHIRLEY: So we are going to KEN: today.

go to the Central Valley and pick up a bunch of dogs and cats in desperate need.

A mom cat and her litter of kittens, newborns... 2 burned kittens... 2 other baby kittens... A mom dog and her puppies... Some orphaned bottle baby puppies... A dog with broken legs.

A dog with broken legs.

CAROLE: The large crate, who's going in the big one?

[airplane engine] [gentle music] Flying Tails is all about flying at risk animals to safety.

Animals, when they get in trouble, usually it's not through their own fault.

It's because of circumstances outside of their control.

SHIRLEY: Some of the animals that we're picking up today are scheduled to be euthanized today if we don't get them.

It is not the shelter's fault.

It is because of overcrowded conditions.

There is no room.

KEN: And then there are orphaned cubs, all kinds of animals that lost their mother.

Sometimes they wander into areas where you don't typically see wild animals, and they're just looking for help.

And we're really trying to step up and become a first responder for animals.

for animals.

{cat meow] CAROLE: There's so many animals [cat meow] in need.

There's another animal that needs to be rescued every day.

It tugs at your heartstrings.

You can't help but have a passion for it and try to move it forward.

[gentle music] Mommy and her babies.

Mommy and her babies.

[puppies yelp] KEN: Hi puppies.

[puppies yelp] Aww.

They're so little.

Hi kitty, it's okay.

My nonprofit is called Fresno Furry Friends.

Fresno Furry Friends.

KEN: Okay.

And I'm a nonprofit KEN: Okay.

organization.

I network 7 different shelters, 7 different shelters, KEN: Wow.

and I help owner surrenders, KEN: Wow.

dispatch calls, dogs on the street.

dogs on the street.

[puppies yelp] These puppies were found [puppies yelp] in a trash bag.

[puppies yelp] They could hear the cries, and when they opened it there were 14 of those puppies in there.

We don't know where the mom is, so we are trying to get them out.

Our shelters are full, we have no room in our shelters.

We are getting a lot of pregnant moms and a lot of moms who's delivering at the shelter.

Without rescues, we cannot survive.

The idea for Flying Tails was a perfect combination of my life history as a journalist and as a pilot, and my love for animals.

[nostalgic music] I've been in broadcasting since I was 18 years old.

I joined the Navy and went into Armed Forces Radio and Television.

“I'm Navy journalist Ken Wayne.

Stay tuned to TV 8 for The FBI coming up next.

Have a pleasant evening.” Got back home to the San Francisco Bay Area and worked at TV stations here and became an anchor.

Towards the end of my career, I got my pilot's license.

[plane flies] [nostalgic music] I grew up in Sparks, Nevada and [nostalgic music] dreamed of traveling my whole life.

And so, after school, I moved to the Bay Area and United Airlines was hiring.

I found that being a flight attendant was really something that I enjoyed.

I thought, oh, this would be fun to do for a year or 2.

And then I just got hooked.

I never thought that I was gonna stay as long as I did, but I was there for 29 years.

Loved every minute of it.

[sentimental music] My neighbor, best friend was an airline pilot.

He was working with a flight attendant and he said, “Hey, do you know anybody who might want to date my friend?” And the flight attendant said, “Oh, Carol!” [laughter] It was a blind date, and I had never been on a blind date.

never been on a blind date.

KEN: Me either.

We realized that we both had KEN: Me either.

a love for animals.

The flying came up right away because she was a flight attendant, and I had just got my pilot's license.

So it was a natural thing that, you know, at some point we were gonna go flying together.

[plane flies overhead] [cat meows] [heartfelt music] I just want to grab ahold of you I just want to grab ahold of you [cat meows] and just love on you forever.

[cat meows] Yea, you've had a rough life already, and this should never have happened to you baby.

have happened to you baby.

[cat meows] Two burned kitties that were [cat meows] inside of a tent.

[cat meows] The lady left a candle burning and left the tent.

and left the tent.

[cat meows] Approximately six weeks old.

[cat meows] They're pretty severely burned, the acrylic blankets melted to them.

melted to them.

KEN: Mmmm.

I came to get them, and then got them to the vet, and then the vet said that they were savable because we weren't sure at that point.

sure at that point.

KEN: Right.

[cat meow] KEN: The dog with the broken leg KEN: what do you know?

MONA: The dog was found at the KEN: what do you know?

school.

It was sitting at the school for two days.

So she couldn't move.

We took it to the Abby Pet Hospital.

Both front legs were broken, and she's been resting and getting cured for the last two months.

So everything looks pretty good, healed now, but she still has a cast on.

But other than that, thank God we found her.

thank God we found her.

[curious music] KEN: I found out about this group called Pilots and Paws that connects pilots who are traveling around.

And if you're going one place in particular there might happen to be an animal that needs a ride.

We started flying a lot of domestic animals - dogs and cats mostly from kill shelters, taking them to areas where they could be adopted.

That was really gratifying.

And then this trip popped up of a couple bear cubs that needed a flight.

Their mom had been hit by a car.

[bear playing] So it was a good story to tell about what's going on with wildlife in these kinds of situations.

So I put little cameras in the plane and the station I was working at, I said, “I think this would be a great story.” “What do you think?” They said, “Sure, go for it.” And it aired... “In San Francisco - Ken Wayne, News Nation” Because of those stories, I started getting calls from different agencies.

“Hey, can you fly this animal?” “Can you do this trip?” And it started to gain a lot of momentum to where I didn't have to go out and search for animals to be rescued people were calling me, and I thought, maybe I'm on to something here.

[adventurous music] MONA: Come on mama.

MONA: Come on mama.

CAROLE: Come on mama!

MONA: Here's your babies.

CAROLE: Come on mama!

MONA: Here's your babies.

CAROLE: There's your babies.

MONA: They're not gonna hurt you Come on puppy.

KEN: You wanna get up here?

MONA: Yeah.

[adventurous music] [plane takes off] [film projector... gentle music] We had a little dog that we found in Mexico and his name was Mango.

[ocean waves] He has since passed.

He inspired us to do these animal rescues.

We were kicking around all kinds of ideas of what to name this program.

And so we were going to call it Flying with Mango, which kind of didn't make a lot of sense, you know?

Are you flying with a fruit?

What's going on here?

Right.

And we were going back and forth back and forth.

And then finally it kind of clicked with me, it's like we're flying and we're telling the story.

So it's a tale, so we're telling flying tales.

We have a, what Ken likes to say, “foster fail” which is a dog that stays.

We have Stevie Licks, our little Papillon Chihuahua mix.

And I wasn't quite ready for her because I was still kind of mourning Mango, but she has a little place in my heart now and we absolutely love her.

And we also have an 18 year old black cat, Bigs.

I won the competition in naming Flying Tails, but she won the competition in naming our dog Stevie Licks... because that's a great name.

because that's a great name.

CAROLE: And she licks a lot.

[dog licks... guitar strum] [adventurous music] We had a call to go down to the Central Valley and pick up some dogs and we really didn't know much about their conditions.

And one was a big pit bull, and the other one was a very small Terrier mix.

And the Terrier mix was in a crate.

I could tell it was in... KEN: ... Distress, yeah.

CAROLE: Distress.

KEN: Itching.

KEN: Itching.

CAROLE: He was yelping.

[dog yelps] SHIRLEY: Oh, oww, I'm sorry.

[dog yelps] SHIRLEY: I'm sorry.

KEN: We learned later that it was mange.

When we landed back here in the Bay Area, Shirley from Dogwood opened the crate to let the little Terrier mix out.

We could see that the mange had been so bad that the dog had scratched almost all of it's hair off.

And it was raw skin, and the dog was just in perpetual discomfort and pain.

SHIRLEY: His skin was too raw to even bathe initially.

So we just you know, started immediately the treatment to kill the mites.

And we also started some anti-itch medication just for his comfort, and pain meds.

for his comfort, and pain meds.

KEN: Right.

CAROLE: That was a hard one.

I've had to learn to get a thick skin.

It's really hard because for every dog that looks okay, there's another one that's not okay... and some don't make it, which is heartbreaking.

KEN: While you're flying, you know that you have an animal back there that needs care.

You have to focus on getting that animal help, and what can I do right now?

And the best thing I can do right now is get that animal transferred to the people who are really going to help right away.

[upbeat music] [kiss] Hey buddy.

Dogwood posted a video of bringing him out of the carrier just crying and wincing in pain.

And then I followed his journey on Dogwood Instagram and saw his progression.

And then when he became adoptable, I applied to adopt him.

to adopt him.

[dog barks] I call him my little ball of fun [dog gruffs] Dogs especially, you know, [dog gruffs] they kick grass over their past and they just move on.

It's a really good lesson for me, you know?

Like, why are we sweating the small stuff?

[dog barks] And I'm grateful to Flying Tails and grateful to Dogwood for saving his life.

[adventurous music] So last summer, we flew a little over 40 animals.

And that covered everything from bobcats to raptors to bats, to squirrels, and coyotes.

CAROLE: Cats, dogs.

KEN: Skunks, owls, possums, bear cubs.

bear cubs.

[bear cubs play] We've done seals and a big leatherback turtle.

[water splashes] The only California animal we have not yet rescued is a mountain lion and a condor.

You're almost like an Uber for wild animals out there.

I know it smells bad.

That was the bear.

I didn't do that.

[bear moans] We had two very interesting and very different bear cub rescue flights.

The first one involved a young bear cub that quickly became a celebrity because it was found in the Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County.

It clearly needed help.

Authorities brought it to the San Diego Humane Society Wildlife Care Facility.

The bear was so young it had to be bottle fed.

[whimsical music] So the people at the center would dress up as bears to feed the bear cub.

The idea was to try to keep that cub wild and think that it was around another bear.

[bear squeals] This went on for several weeks until it was large enough to be moved out of that facility.

Greased it.

Oh, let's get some air in here.

Oh, let's get some air in here.

CAROLE: Well, it was cold Oh, let's get some air in here.

CAROLE: when we left.

[music] We flew to Ramona and picked up [music] that little bear cub, along with a fox and 6 coyotes.

[bear growls] [plane engine] [bear snorts] They were all taken to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.

[bears growling, playing] [mischievous music] KEN: Yeah, he's just KEN: sitting here watching us.

DORIS: Mmm hmm.

KEN: sitting here watching us.

KEN: He definitely does not KEN: seem afraid of us.

DORIS: This bear is a little KEN: seem afraid of us.

more comfortable with people than we would like to see.

[fence rattles] I think he just doesn't understand that he's supposed to go in the den.

Our staff have been hazing it a little bit, which means they've been running after it and scaring it so it'll run off and hide like it should.

Because if we release it back to the wild, and it's so comfortable with people that it doesn't run away, it's going to become a conflict bear.

And so we don't want that to happen.

[bear moans] [whimsical music] The other rescue also involved a bear cub that was found alone, but in much greater physical danger.

CHELSEA: He had been seen in El Dorado County for a number of weeks looking ill with basically no fur.

And so some really concerned citizens brought him to our door.

KEN: How's he doing now?

CHELSEA: He's doing great!

KEN: How's he doing now?

Fully furred, eating like a champ.

We were hoping that he could be released, but there are some concerns about his undercoat being thick enough to be comfortable and survive in the winter.

[plane engine] AMANDA: This bear is going to live at Sequoia Park Zoo.

It has a huge enclosure with 200ft redwood trees, a pond, grass, hills, places to hide.

He's basically going to have luxury style bear quarters, and we are going to be his servants for life, so... [whimsical music] [relaxing music] [plane engine turns off] CAROLE: Oh, hi sweet puppy!

CAROLE: Oh, hi sweet puppy!

[dog barks] [dog barks] RESCUER: Look at you guys, packed in tight!

[laughter] KEN: I'm not even sure how many animals we have, 20 something.

There might be more puppies and kitties than we thought.

SHIRLEY: Okay, well, and kitties than we thought.

we'll make it work.

Oh, hi babies!

Anywhere you can find.

The one puppy is gonna go in one of those crates.

CAROLE: Boo boos!

CAROLE: Boo boos!

SHIRLEY: Hi sweet girl!

CAROLE: It's ok.

Oh, are you SHIRLEY: Hi sweet girl!

CAROLE: a girl?

I didn't even CAROLE: know this.

CAROLE: know this.

SHIRLEY: What a good girl.

SHIRLEY: Oh, she's so sweet.

KEN: It's going to be okay now.

KEN: It's going to be okay now.

SHIRLEY: Yeah.

KEN: Worst is over.

SHIRLEY: Yeah.

KEN: The worst is over.

KEN: The worst is over.

SHIRLEY: Yeah, today was her day instead it's the start of a whole new life.

It's going to be a busy afternoon.

We're going to get all these guys back to my place.

Assess everybody.

Some are gonna to go to foster homes.

We're going to check who's had vaccines, who needs worming, who needs flea treatment, and just get everybody taken care of.

KEN: They're so cute.

[puppies whine] KEN: They're very vocal too.

[puppies whine] SHIRLEY: Aww, sweet babies.

[puppies whine] They're going to go right home and have a bottle.

RESCUER: Is that everybody?

RESCUER: Is that everybody?

CAROLE: That's everybody.

RESCUER: All right.

CAROLE: That's everybody.

[intense music] Wildfires are a big problem in California.

And when there's a wildfire, we know there's a pretty good chance somebody's gonna call us for help.

People didn't have any place to go.

They didn't have a place for themselves, and they didn't have a place for their pets.

So what we did is we organized a group of volunteer pilots.

We had about half a dozen planes all fly down from various parts of Northern California down to the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles... in Los Angeles... [dog panting] and met LA Animal Services.

[dog panting] Good boy.

We're dividing it up - 2 planes are going to Sonoma, and 3 planes are going to Sacramento.

And they had a dozen or more big dogs that are already in the shelters in Los Angeles prior to the fires that were available for adoption and had not yet been adopted.

yet been adopted.

[bluegrass music] We loaded up those dogs, flew them to Northern California to shelters where they had room for them so that they could be adopted.

And that freed up space in LA for those dogs that were affected by the fires, who were separated from their owners, who didn't have a place to stay until their owners could get their feet on the ground.

CO-PILOT: I think we got traffic CO-PILOT: straight ahead, about CO-PILOT: straight ahead, about KEN: Okay... Okay.

CO-PILOT: 200 feet below us.

KEN: Okay... Okay.

OLIVIA: Once we found out about the wildfires in LA, I called Ken and said, “Hey, we've got to do something.

Lets partner together, and make a rescue mission happen.” We know that animals are gonna be brought into shelters that may already be at capacity.

So it's really important that organizations like Pets Lifeline partnered with an organization like Flying Tails is able to take existing animals in those shelters out to make room for animals in need on the ground.

KEN: Just departed Van Nuys up KEN: in the Santa Clarita area.. OLIVIA: When you're driving from the North Bay all the way down to LA, it takes several hours.

Driving those animals back up, causes a lot of stress.

So we knew time was of the essence, and we knew that we wanted to keep those animals as de-stressed as possible.

So that flying mission was critical.

KEN: There's nothing worse than going through a tragic situation where you lose your home and your belongings, but then you're also separated from your animals who are so close and part of your family.

So that helped bridge that gap a little bit and get them back together.

[dogs barking] KEN: Tell me about the kittens.

SHIRLEY: The kittens were KEN: Tell me about the kittens.

terribly, terribly burned.

And one of them was so severely injured that it didn't survive in spite of our best efforts in veterinary care.

The other one has done extremely well.

That kitten is beautiful and healthy, and the scars are covering up with fur.

[rock music] SAMANTHA: My other cat is Motley so he just had to be Crue.

It was just perfect.

So here's the tail.

And then the gray line on his leg is where his leg scar is.

And then the little white on his nose, that was all burned.

And then this eye was, like, half closed.

And then the fur grew back white which is really cool.

which is really cool.

KEN: Huh.

KEN: But he can see okay?

SAMANTHA: Yeah.

KEN: But he can see okay?

He's gonna have lifelong scars for sure.

But he has healed probably like 90%, which is amazing.

KEN: He doesn't seem affected.

SAMANTHA: No, he's really good.

KEN: He doesn't seem affected.

KEN: Pretty happy cat.

SAMANTHA: Yeah.

KEN: Pretty happy cat.

[cat purrs] BONNIE: Shirley said, “Hey, we have this dog here that I think would be perfect for you” And we went out to Napa to meet her at her foster's and fell in love with her.

and fell in love with her.

KEN: Aww, who's the happy girl?

BONNIE: She just loves everything and everybody.

I had heard that she was gonna be euthanized.

To think that dogs are being euthanized for no other reason than room kills me.

She's the sweetest dog I've ever had.

I've ever had.

[dog panting] KEN: You seem pretty happy.

[dog panting] [dogs barking, laughter] SHIRLEY: Come on.

Hi Rich.

Hi.

Here on the property, I probably have 35 cats and dogs.

In our program we have over 100.

You want your baba?

There we go.

[gasp] Good girl.

Rescue is just kind of nonstop.

We get literally more than 100 requests a day to take animals in desperate need.

We bottle feed babies around the clock.

We get up at night with moms that are whelping.

moms that are whelping.

Come on, Tiger.

We get our hearts broken constantly.

It is heart-wrenching and devastating.

heart-wrenching and devastating.

Good job, good girl.

But we have to just go on in honor of that animal.

We couldn't save that kitten, but boy, we can rescue another one in honor of that baby we couldn't save.

That just has to be our focus.

KEN: My motivation comes from seeing the animals get placed back to where they belong.

To watch an eagle fly away to freedom.

to freedom.

CAROLE: Oh!

Unreal.

To have dogs and cats that were in a bad situation, that may have been euthanized, to be able to hand them over to a place where they're going to be in loving homes and have a happy life.

To see a dog's expression change from when you picked it up, to when you bring it back to a place where it's going to be safe and you can see it in their face, and that's a lot of motivation.

I want to spread awareness about the condition of animals in this country.

Wild animals and domestic animals.

There's a lot of things that could be changed that could really make animals lives a lot better.

And I think if animals lives are better, our lives are better.

Anybody who has a pet understands the bond that you have.

So I think if we're protecting animals, in a way we're kind of protecting ourselves.

To find out more about Flying Tails Animal Rescue and to see more stories, go to FlyingTails.org [music]