AIRPORT PUP

Adopted Into Forever Home

By Carie Broecker

Last August, a United Airlines passenger was traveling from China to New York with their four-month-old German Shepherd puppy. There was a stopover in San Francisco. At that time, the traveler was asked for proper vaccine documentation for the pup. The papers that were presented did not look valid to the airline representative tasked with approving the paperwork. The Centers for Disease Control has very strict rules for dogs entering the country from locations with high risk for rabies, like China.

The passenger chose to continue on to their destination without the puppy—essentially abandoning the puppy.

United Airlines rallied around the pup. Options were sending the pup back to China, where he would be euthanized, or putting him down locally. The United Airlines management and staff made the decision to sponsor the pup’s quarantine time. They named him “Polaris” after their business-class service.

Little Polaris needed to be quarantined for four months. He spent some time in a United Airlines office in San Francisco being cared for by staff. Then he was flown first class to Los Angeles to finish his quarantine time at United Airlines’ quarantine station.

When Polaris was released from quarantine, it was time for him to get adopted. United Airlines asked the San Francisco SPCA to partner with them so any adopter would go through their regular adoption process. They had only one caveat. They wanted him to be adopted by a United Airlines employee. They had put so much time, money, energy, and love into this puppy, they really wanted him to stay within the United family.

The lucky employee who adopted Polaris is United Captain William Dale.

Capt. Dale said, “My family has been in our new neighborhood for almost a year, and everyone has been wonderful. It is a very dog-friendly area.

Looking out of our kitchen window is a parade of dogs going by throughout the day.

My wife and I discussed adopting Polaris as we had been wanting a dog for quite a while. We both love dogs but the home we had been renting just didn’t have enough space. Now that we have the space and we feel settled in our new home, we decided the timing was perfect. We showed pictures of Polaris to our kids, and they thought he was really cute. It’s wonderful to see Polaris lick their faces and hear my daughter say, ‘I think he really likes me.’ I grew up with a Border Collie named Buddy, who we got when I was about three. Polaris is similar in that he’s very intelligent and needs lots of exercise. We started training in January and he’s doing so well.”

Kudos to everyone at United Airlines who went above and beyond to take care of this innocent soul and help find him a loving family!