Couple gets to airport to find luggage is overweight because of stowaway dog

Trust a dog to follow its owner everywhere, even to the airport.

A Texas couple recently realised this when they found that their pet chihuahua had stowed away in one of their suitcases.

Kristi and Jared Owens were checking in their bags at the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport late last month when they were told their luggage was overweight. They could either pay for extra luggage or rearrange their items to make it lighter before taking their flight from Texas to Las Vegas. They opted for the second option – and were glad they did.

They opened up the suitcase, and “out pops a chihuahua from your boot!” recalled Mr Owens in a Facebook post. Their five-pound rescue chihuahua Icky was hiding inside his cowboy boots. “Unreal! Let the shenanigans begin!”

“Just coming out of the boot is Icky’s little bitty head bobbing up and down with her tongue out. I wish there would have been a picture of our faces when we opened that up and saw that,” Mr Owens told The Washington Post.

The couple have two children, three dogs, a rabbit and lots of fish, naturally giving them a full house. “We were just looking for a little romantic getaway, a little escape,” Ms Owens said.

The couple suspect that Icky sneaked into their bags when Mr Owens did a final round of packing the morning of their travel to keep his boots before zipping up the bag for good. Ms Owen had already packed the previous night, so she ruled herself out as being to blame.

She added that moment was surreal. “Are we really seeing our dog in our suitcase right now? Is this happening?” she asked. But they were also embarrassed and worried that the airline officials may think they snuck their dog in deliberately.

The airline security official attending to them, however, made it easy. Cathy Cook offered to watch Icky and suggested that the couple continue on their vacation.

“They [Southwest employees] helped us do everything we could to get our bags checked,” Mr Owens said, adding that Ms Cook even checked up on the couple as they went outside the airport to make calls to get Icky back home.

Eventually Mr Owens’ uncle came to the airport to take Icky from the couple and return her home. The couple say they went on to win money in Las Vegas and believe that Icky’s cute escape attempt was nothing but a good omen.