Dead Dog in a Suitcase...

The dog days of summer -- the hot period from July into September -- usually means the sound of the cicadas to me.  I don't hear them much in NYC.  What I do hear, via the google searches, leading readers to MotherPie, is that the dead dog in a suitcase story continues.  Google "dead dog in suitcase story" and the MotherPie article Dead Dog Story? Not My Daughter is right at the top of the search.   What started as a funny story (real or not) at the first of last April became not too funny (for us) when grandmother ceased correcting the facts.

The original story is funny as we experienced it.  My youngest daughter sent me an email a few weeks ago with links to the MotherPie story, written by the author of a NYC blog alongthoselines who wrote about the story in April but had the setting in NYC. 

If you heard this story from my mother, you might think that it really was my daughter who went to house sit and found the beloved dog dead.  The owners instructed the dog to be taken to the vet.  Hauled in a suitcase and on the way to the vet, a guy offered to help with the suitcase only it turned into a mugging and a suitcase theft.   The story does have all the gripping saga elements: the innocent girl, death, intrigue, loss, victim, attacker...

The story made the rounds later in April and the NYC blogger, via the email I received, pegged it to as early as January '05.  There is a new story about a dead dog in a freezer -- it is from Germany where there are laws about dead animal cadaver removals.

So, if you are one of the 14 or so readers daily coming to MotherPie from googling the Dead Dog in a Suitcase Story, maybe this will help straighten out the facts.  Regardless, welcome to MotherPie and thanks for your attention to the content you find here. Most of it is much more relevant.  Gossip has its place, even in the new media.  Perhaps especially on blogs. Urban legends.  Just remember: it was not my daughter.

11/13/08 update:  The Dead Dog Story Goes Visual

Comments

[Laundry Woman]

You are cracking me up. I must have missed the memo.

What I love? Coming in on the tail end of everything all the time. It makes for one amusing perspective....

[karyn]

chicken spaghetti - um, um

I love you Mother Pie

[cbyr19]

I worked at a country club last summer (2006) and one of the server's said it happened to her friend. She was very specific; saying the dog was a Golden Retreiver and it had died of old age. She called the family that was on vacation and they told her to take it to the vet so they could dispose of it properly.

Since she was in college (in Boston) and had no car...so she packed the carcass in a suitcase from the basement and dragged the bag to the T station. (T=subway in Boston.)

A man saw that she was struggling, so he offered to help carry it. Normally, she wouldn't have accepted help, but he was around her age and good-looking so she gave in, figuring he wouldn't know what was in the bag. He noticed the bag was heavy and asked her what was in it. She replied that it was electronics because she was moving from her dorm to an apartment. Before she finished speaking, he punched her in the stomach and ran away with the suitcase.

Imagine his face when he opened up the bag.

I know it's sick, but I found the story hilarious and told anyone that would listen. To my disappointment, my sister's friend googled the story and found out it was a legend. I think I'll continue to tell it though. It's too good to pass up!