The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Instagram is one of the more startling places on the Internet, featuring an ever-updating feed of the violence-causing devices the agency’s officers confiscate from clueless travelers in airports nationwide. But last week, amid the usual murderer’s row homemade explosives, loaded guns, and exotic knives that people tried to bring on planes, there appeared a dog. A very cute, very small Chihuahua:
Of course, this wasn’t one of the agency’s detection dogs, who regularly pop up in the feed. This was a traveler’s dog. This dog was found in a checked bag, after a checked bag alarm went off — this dog was in a suitcase, there in bowels of New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Naturally, the inclination upon discovering a dog in a suitcase is to assume somebody put him there, somebody intent on bypassing usual protocols of traveling with your dog with some homegrown logic. Why NOT put the dog in a suitcase? These people think. I’ll put in some bottled water and a bag of chips, and we’re off to Hawaii!
Amazing (but believably?), the passenger who owned this fella claims the dog climbed in the suitcase on his own while the owner was packing, and the owner evidently clamped the suitcase shut, transported it to the airport, and dropped it off at the airline counter, all without realizing anything was amiss.
Here’s the TSA message that came with that photo:
#TSATravelTips – Ay, #Chihuahua! It’s always important to double check your bags before traveling, especially to make sure your Chihuahua hasn’t stowed away inside one of them. That’s exactly what happened this week at #NewYork’s#LaGuardia (#LGA) Airport. While resolving a checked baggage alarm, an officer was shocked when he found a dog in the bag! Apparently, the dog climbed in while its owner was packing her suitcase. TSA worked with the airline to identify the owner, and the two were happily reunited.#DogsOfInstagram #TSAGoodCatch
How could someone be so absent minded that they packed the dog? We at Dogster think it’s time for a refresher course.
Top 10 clues that you’ve packed your dog in your suitcase
- Your suitcase is barking.
- When you closed your suitcase it whimpered.
- When you packed your pants they licked you.
- Your sock pile is breathing.
- Your sweatpants are scratching.
- Your suitcase is snoring.
- Your suitcase just ate some food it found on the ground.
- Your suitcase is rolling down the street after a mail truck.
- Your suitcase caught a passing Frisbee.
- Your suitcase just peed.
Let’s keep it together out there, travelers.
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