On August 27th, 315 dogs and cats flew to new lives. Our small but mighty team, with the support of our incredible #satostrong community, pulled off a historic feat. Mission Possible 15 - OUR BIGGEST MISSION EVER - is officially a mission accomplished.

The two airplanes arrived in San Juan on August 26th, carrying 9,000 lbs of donated dog food from Bark. Within 30 minutes of the planes arriving, this food was distributed to trusted shelters and independent rescuers so it could immediately reach more dogs in-need across the island.

After a long afternoon and night of getting all our satos crated up and ready to go, our team headed back to the airport around midnight to start the loading process. Plane #1 took off from San Juan at 3:40am and then our team quickly loaded all of the remaining animals onto Plane #2, which left the ground about 10 minutes later. After each plane stopped in Florida, they were scheduled to land in New York about 30-40 minutes apart, giving our New York team just enough time to do the reverse: quickly unload a selection of animals from Plane #1, send it back on its way to Maine, and then prepare to unload all of Plane #2 right behind it.

However, no matter how much planning and preparing we do in advance, something unexpected always happens. In this case: Plane #2 ended up catching up with Plane #1. Our team in New York got blasted with BOTH planes landing at the same time.

After a speechless moment of disbelief and watching them both arrive, our amazing team of volunteers didn’t miss a beat. They all jumped right in, unloading both planes and making sure each and every crate of precious cargo made it safely to the next step of their journey.

By sundown, 315 dogs and cats got handed off to their new family, foster family, or to one of 13 trusted shelter partners along the East Coast, from Florida to Maine.

Our team is deeply grateful to Tito's Handmade Vodka, The RTA Store, Christopher N. Harding, Founder of Flew the Coop, Sydney Hale Co., Sidewalk Angels Foundation and a group of generous donors who wish to remain anonymous who matched all donations we raised for this mission. We are also thankful to all of YOU who donated, shared our posts on social media, cheered us on from afar, and more.

This life-saving work truly takes a village and this mission would not have been possible without you. Thank you for helping us save 315 lives just in time before another hurricane season.

Watch the video below and scroll through our photo galleries to see all of the magic that you helped make a reality.