Arizona-bound dog ends up on flight to Ireland

While a large swath of the human population put on green wigs and pretended they were Irish this weekend in a thinly veiled attempt to get wasted for no reason, one New Jersey pooch made everyone else look like a slacker by jumping on a flight to the St. Paddy’s Day Motherland.

Of course he didn’t actually do this himself. United Airlines handlers put him there by accident. Poor little guy was stuck in a cage and probably had no idea what was happening. But hopefully there’s enough of a green beer haze leftover from yesterday for most of you to gloss over that little detail.

Anyway, here’s the actual story. As CNN reports, Hendrix the six-year-old English Springer Spaniel was supposed to fly cargo to Phoenix on Thursday. A slight problem arose when United Airlines handlers placed the pup on a flight to Ireland instead.

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His human, Meredith Grant, received the unsettling news 10 minutes before Hendrix’s original Arizona-bound flight was set to land. Needless to say, she was unimpressed.

"I felt like somebody punched me in the stomach. I mean, that's my dog. That's like my child," she told CNN.

To their credit, United sprang into action and immediately worked to get Hendrix back from the Emerald Isle. Staff also walked him, fed him and spent time with him during the lengthy detour, said an airline spokesperson.

The pooch also enjoyed a happy reunion with Grant at the Newark airport before continuing on to Phoenix.

Well, Hendrix might have been a little less enthusiastic about the fact that he’d just spent a generous chunk of the past 24 hours in a cage underneath an airplane with nothing but luggage for company, but one of the best things about dogs is their endless capacity for forgiveness.

Grant received a full refund for the botched flight, but what she really wanted was an acknowledgment from United that they’d royally screwed up.

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"Obviously they take better care of people's bags than they do dogs. To them it's just an animal. What do they care?" Grant said.

Actually, that first part might not be true. At least we hope.