Senator Ted Cruz is at the doghouse with some critics who criticized him for leaving his pet dog Snowflake at home amid freezing temperatures – while he and the rest of the family left for Cancún, Mexico, according to a report.
The Republican lawmaker said, after public outrage, that he was just accompanying his teenage daughters on a trip with friends – noting that, like millions of his Texan colleagues, his family lost heat and water.
Michael Hardy, a reporter for New York’s Intelligencer magazine, said he decided to pay a visit to Cruz’s Houston home in the exclusive River Oaks neighborhood, where he spotted a white dog peering through a glass panel at the front door.
“Is this Senator Cruz’s home?” the reporter asked a man who got out of a vehicle parked in the garage.
The man, who identified himself as a security guard, said yes and that the senator was not at home.
When asked who was looking after the lone mutt in the supposedly cold house, the guard said yes.
In 2014, Cruz identified the dog as a rescue puppy named Snowflake, Hardy wrote on Twitter, where he posted a photo of the abandoned dog.
“I just passed Ted Cruz’s home in Houston. Its lights are off, but a neighbor told me that the block recovered power last night. Furthermore, Ted seems to have left the family poodle behind, ”he wrote.
His post generated a torrent of vitriol against the embattled senator.
“Tell me that they didn’t really leave that dog alone at home,” wrote one person.
“This mutt deserves better,” another snarled.
“Snowflake has now joined the 99.9% of Americans who are not supposed to support @tedcruz,” said a third.
Some users marked ASPCA and PETA, while others expressed some skepticism about the image.
“Where’s the snow and ice?” said one.
“I don’t think this is really @tedcruz’s home, where’s the snow?” added another.
“I tried to explain that after two sunny days of 40 degrees, the snow and ice melted, but some continued to insist that the photo was fake,” wrote Hardy.
Cruz, who shortened his trip to Mexico and returned on Thursday, told reporters that the trip was “obviously a mistake and, on second thought, I wouldn’t have done that.”