This six-month-old pupper Polaris was abandoned at SFO back in September, but an airline pilot and his family have taken the dog in, after dozens of United Airlines employees clamored to adopt the puppy.

Today I learned that it’s not just people who sometimes get denied the ability to enter their international travel destination, but this also happens to dogs too. Our story begins in September, as seen below, when a dog at San Francisco International Airport “was denied entry to the U.S.” because the owner, an international traveler from Asia, did not have the proper paperwork. That owner simply abandoned the dog in early September, and the pup has been in doggie limbo since.

The tweet above is from Vincent Passafiume, whom the Chronicle identifies as “United [Airlines]’s director of customer service.” And the Chron identifies him as such in an update that the dog named Polaris was finally adopted by a United Airlines pilot last week, after the pup was previously shipped to LAX for quarantine, and the SF SPCA was enlisted to help find the dog a permanent home.

Finding someone willing to adopt proved the easy part. According to NBC Bay Area, “Almost 30 United employees applied to adopt Polaris.”  

"Sometimes we deal with the craziest of situations," Passafiume told NBC Bay Area. "This was probably one of the oddest we've ever dealt with and also one of the most challenging. To be able to get the outcome that we did as a team and see that Polaris will go home to a family that will give him a good life is really a special moment for me."

There had initially been talk that the abandoned pup Polaris might join the SFO therapy dog team, which now stands at 12 dogs, one pig, and just like at a Giants game this past season, one oversize rabbit.

But instead, Polaris will have his forever home with a whole family here in the Bay Area.

Related: SFO Has A Therapy Pig Now [SFist]

Image: @vjpassa via Twitter