She shouldn’t be a fashion accessory…

I’m easily entertained by people watching at airports when I’m waiting for a plane. I wonder why people are traveling, what their lives might be like and who they might vote for in the upcoming elections. (Actually, I don’t think you can guess that by mere appearance, given my experience as a voter registration clerk in two previous elections.)

So while waiting for my flight out of Austin this week, I noticed a couple across from me, clearly trying to look affluent and cool and hide their age with excessive black coloration of their hair that seemed to conflict with the many creases in their faces. (Yes, I have those age lines too, but my hair is what it is — brown with more and more touches of gray).

On the lap of the man was a tiny dog, a terrier of some sort, with a pink topknot bow apparently indicating its female gender. I doubt the dog weighed more than five pounds and was well behaved. It never made a yip or a bark and only got excited when the man fed it a tiny bit of Amy’s Ice Cream.

As the couple’s flight was called to board for Kansas City, the woman picked up her medium sized and oh-so-fashionable black leather purse and unzipped it. I suspected she was checking for last minute flight necessities before boarding.

But what happened was not what I expected. The woman scooped up the pup from her husband’s lap and placed it (gently) in her purse. Then she zipped it completely shut and walked toward the boarding line.

The dog never made a noise — not a whimper, yip or a bark.

As far as I could tell, the purse was not made specially for carrying around a small dog. I saw no vent holes or screens where the dog could peek out.

I can’t imagine anything more terrifying for a dog — being zipped into a complete dark case with little or no air circulation and no way of seeing out. And on top of that, I’m sure the high-pitched whine of the jet’s engines and the extremely rough ride we all experienced getting out of Austin that day was even more frightening for the dog.

I love all dogs, even though I’m partial to full sized ones like our pooch Chester. I like it when they are around, but I think there is a limit to that. I see more and more people traveling on planes with their pets these days. These owners must like showing off their dogs or proving how cool they are by traveling with them. (Service animal owners excepted). However, I suspect most dogs (or cats) would much prefer just to be left at home in their familiar places while they are temporarily cared for by someone hired by their owners.

I could not imagine treating an animal like that small dog was treated this week.

Maybe next time I see something like this at an airport, I should rush over and grab the animal’s container from its owner then free it. But of course, that would be terrifying for the animal as well and I would end up in jail. I can just hope people like this dog’s owners will display good common sense in the future.

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On another topic and speaking of elections, I will start another round of volunteering as an election clerk tomorrow. I work as a same day registration clerk for the two weeks prior to the June 4 New Mexico primary and then on election day doing that same job and working as a “Machine Judge” — essentially the No. 2 person at the polls.

Because of these duties, my blogs may be a bit sparse in the next couple of weeks. But I’ll have lots of time to think about what I hope will be entertaining topics to write about.

And as always, if you have any comments or questions, please forward them to to me at my email address at patrick@aero.cordero.com