A fluffy goldendoodle was tied to a metal structure inside a Las Vegas airport as he watched his owner walk away from a JetBlue ticket station.
The owner proceeded to her departure gate.
Officers approached her and asked why she left the dog. The woman replied that the airline would not allow her to fly with it, according to a police statement.
But police said she did not complete the documents required to travel with an animal. Officers charged her with abandoning an animal, among other counts.
Airline workers and police cared for the dog at the airport until animal protection services took him to a shelter, police said. Then a dog rescue group took in the goldendoodle after his owner failed to claim him within 10 days. Staff there named him JetBlue.
“While that part of his story is heartbreaking, what has followed has been nothing short of extraordinary,” the rescue posted on Facebook.
Las Vegas police shared JetBlue’s story on social media Wednesday — along with photos of the 2-year-old goldendoodle smiling — prompting an outpouring of people offering to take in the abandoned dog.
More than 2,700 people from across the world applied to adopt JetBlue, according to Danielle Roth, co-founder of the Retriever Rescue of Las Vegas.
Now, JetBlue has found his new home. Las Vegas police officer Skeeter Black, who was one of the responding officers when the goldendoodle was left tied up at Harry Reid International Airport, adopted JetBlue on Saturday.
“We’re just very excited to introduce … the new dog to our family,” Black said at a Las Vegas adoption event Saturday. “We’re going to enjoy him. He’s going to be very much loved.”
Ben Jenkins, who fostered JetBlue last week, said the goldendoodle appeared nervous when Jenkins picked him up Sunday. By Friday, JetBlue was playing with Jenkins’s four other dogs and with a pink stuffed bone toy that the goldendoodle picked out at a dog store.
“He is resilient,” Jenkins told The Washington Post. “Nothing fazed him. He’s still got his tail up, wagging around. So he just wants to have fun. He just wants love.”
Footage the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shared on social media shows the Feb. 2 incident. A woman — whose face is blurred — approaches a JetBlue ticket counter with the goldendoodle but leaves without him. The dog can be seen watching her walk away.
Police officers later located the woman at a gate.
“We’re going to walk you back to where your dog’s at and then issue a citation,” an officer told the woman, according to the footage.
“I was trying to rebook my flight,” the woman responded.
The woman resisted officers’ attempts to detain her while they escorted her to the ticket station, police said.
The woman, who police did not publicly identify, was charged with abandoning an animal and resisting a public officer.
Jenkins, a volunteer at the Retriever Rescue of Las Vegas, said he took JetBlue to a veterinarian for vaccines and to be neutered. When JetBlue arrived at Jenkins’s Las Vegas home Monday, he went into a crate and slept, Jenkins said.
Retriever Rescue of Las Vegas wrote on social media Wednesday that the support for JetBlue has been “overwhelming in the most beautiful way” and the rescue was doing its best to keep up with adoption applications.
“After everything he’s been through, the thought of him ever experiencing abandonment again has us on very high alert,” the rescue wrote. “We will be extremely intentional in choosing his forever family.”
But the decision to give JetBlue to a police officer who was at the airport Feb. 2 was easy, Roth said Friday. Black and his family had submitted an application to adopt a doodle in September and were waiting for the right match.
JetBlue — the airline — said it donated $1,000 to the goldendoodle’s adoption fee and veterinarian bills and $5,000 to the rescue.
The rescue, which focuseson helping abused dogs from overseas, said it hopes JetBlue helps its 40 unadopted dogs find homes.
“I’m hoping this face brought so much awareness to our community of dogs that need us,” Roth, holding JetBlue, said at Saturday’s adoption event. She then hid her face behind JetBlue’s and clarified: “This face right here.”
To end her speech, Roth kissed the back of JetBlue’s head and said: “Okay, buddy. Go home.” She placed him on the sidewalk and released him to Black’s family.
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