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Real life or Super Bowl commercial? Abandoned dog finds a new home

After finding a dog abandoned in a train station in Scotland, the SPCA has found the dog a new home and a loving owner.

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Jacqueline Dormer/AP
Second grade students of teacher Abe Hitz at Pine Grove Elementary School in Pine Grove, Pa., greet Rocket, service dog and rescue pet of Jim McKeone, president of the board of directors at Ruth Steinert Memorial SPCA Pine Grove, after he arrived with shelter workers to pick up donations the children collected for the animals at the shelter in Pine Grove. The students in Abe Hitz's class collected donations for the shelter instead of exchanging Christmas gifts with each other.

One month ago a 3-year-old male shar-pei dog named Kai was abandoned at the Ayr train station in Scotland along with a suitcase full of his belongings. Today he found a new owner and home. And no, this isn’t a Super Bowl commercial.

When Kai’s story first broke, hundreds of dog lovers around the world volunteered to take him in. Out of all of the applications, the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) choose Ian Russell to be Kai’s new owner.

As it turned out, both man and canine were searching for a partner.

After 15 years together, Russell’s beloved Dalmatian Mica died just before Christmas, leaving him heartbroken.

"It feels like fate that I've been able to rehome Kai, and I'm not usually a believer in things like that," Russell told ITV.com. "I'm over the moon and very shocked that I was chosen out of everyone who wanted him."

When Russell heard about Kai he called the SPCA to make sure that he was okay and ask if there was anything he could do.

The Super Bowl commercial similarities do not end there.

Kai's last owner is unknown, but he had been previously sold on the Internet. When Kai was first found at the train station, the SPCA used a microchip to determine his name and owner. When they contacted the owner, they said that they had sold the dog on Gumtree, a website for classified ads, in 2013.

The former owner could not tell the SPCA the address of the people to whom they sold Kai.

“This case highlights the potential consequences of selling an animal online as it often leads to the impulse buying of pets that people know very little about,” inspector for the Scottish SPCA, Stewart Taylor said in a statement on Jan. 6. “Regardless of the fact Kai was left with his belongings, this was still a cruel incident and we are keen to identify the person responsible.”

Kai is a friendly and healthy dog, so the SPCA believes that his owners abandoned him because they could not afford to care for him. But they are confident that Kai will be happy and well cared for with Russell.

"I work all over Scotland, mainly outdoors, driving wherever I'm needed in my van,” said Russell, who is a hydraulic engineer. “Kai will come with me and when it's appropriate I'll let him out to run around and play safely while I work. We'll be able to hang out all the time."

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