Icelandair crew adopts puppies born just before international flight

A group of Icelandair staffers are either big-hearted heroes or Cruella de Vil-style monsters after adopting four newborn puppies that belonged to one of their passengers, a man identified only as "Grandpa" Torsten. Shortly before an Icelandair flight from Seattle to Stockholm, the ground crew looked inside one of the dog crates that was supposed to be loaded onto the plane and realized that there was more than one animal inside. Grandpa Torsten's sled dog, Pepper, had given birth (and if that doesn't sound like a line from a children's book, then we don't know what does) to a litter of four pups just before the flight.

As Icelandair clarified on Facebook, puppies are not allowed to fly before they're two months old, so the newborns were going to have to stay in Seattle. And that's where the staffers stepped in: four Icelandair employees each offered to adopt one of the pups. So little Hekla, Askja, Keilir and Katla (all names after volcanoes, like the airline's planes) all have new homes in Washington state. The airline wrote on Facebook

After consulting a veterinarian and considering the limited options for the puppies, our staff decided to step in and adopt them. Pepper returned home to Stockholm with her owner after spending time with them.

And this is where you either love or despise everyone involved in this story: Either you're delighted that the employees stepped in and promised the pups a home or you're furious that "Grandpa" Torsten (really, that's the name he goes by) was either unaware that Pepper was pregnant or allowed her pups to be taken from her, despite the logistical issues of the entire situation. We're choosing to focus on the positives: the puppies are being cared for and have all been promised homes instead of going directly from the airport to an animal shelter. Now, let's all agree that they have the cuuuutest little faces and move on.