LUBBOCK – A Texas couple discovered an unexpected travel companion when they tried to check in their bags for a Southwest Airlines flight to Las Vegas earlier this month.
Jared and Kristi Owens said their pooch, a 5-pound Chihuahua named Icky, hid in their luggage and kept quiet the entire ride to the Lubbock airport.
The couple told media outlets that they were at the Southwest check-in counter when airline employee Cathy Cook told them the bag was about 5 pounds overweight.
To avoid paying a fee, the couple opened the bag to try to rearrange some items. That’s when their furry friend made an appearance.
“There’s our dog coming out of my boot, coming out of my boot with her head bopping up,” Jared Owens told KCBD in Lubbock.
“She’s the burrower, that’s what she does. She burrows in clothes, she burrows in, obviously suitcases now.”
Cook offered to dogsit Icky while the couple visited Las Vegas, where they actually won money, they told The Washington Post. They ended up calling a relative to pick up Icky.
They were also grateful that Cook, Southwest Airlines, or security didn’t accuse them of trying to smuggle an animal, they said.
With a “really busy” household of two children, three dogs, a rabbit and fish, the couple told The Washington Post that Icky somehow snuck in between the time that Jared Owens packed his boots and zipped the suitcase.
“She didn’t make a peep,” Kristi Owens told The Washington Post, adding that the family rescued her from the side of the road five years ago.
In this case, the travelers were happy for oversized baggage fees.
“Thank goodness we found this dog because you would have gotten to Vegas and you probably would have had a deceased animal in your bag,” Jared Owens told KCBD.
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