Hillary Clinton mocks Ted Cruz after he reportedly left his pet dog, Snowflake, behind amid Texas' storm

• Hillary Clinton blasted Ted Cruz for reportedly leaving his dog behind amid a winter storm in Texas.
• A picture taken by a journalist went viral after it showed the dog looking out from the family home.
• "Don't vote for anyone you wouldn't trust with your dog," Clinton tweeted on Friday.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jabbed Republican Sen. Ted Cruz for his decision to travel to Cancun, Mexico, amid a catastrophic winter storm in Texas and allegedly leaving behind his pet dog, Snowflake.

"Don't vote for anyone you wouldn't trust with your dog," Clinton tweeted on Friday after a picture of Snowflake looking out from Cruz's dark family mansion went viral on social media.

The picture of the pooch was taken by Houston-based journalist Michael Hardy, who wrote an article in New York Magazine on Friday titled: "Ted Cruz Abandons Millions of Freezing Texans and His Poodle, Snowflake."

In the article, Hardy described driving down to the senator's home in the River Oaks neighborhood to "check out" his "power situation" after Cruz claimed his family, like millions of others, were without heat and water.

Upon his arrival at the "dark and uninhabited" mansion, Hardy described hearing a bark before noticing a small, white dog looking out of the front door window.

"As I approached to knock, a man stepped out of the Suburban parked in Cruz's driveway. 'Is this Senator Cruz's house?' I asked. He said it was, that Cruz wasn't home, and identified himself as a security guard," Hardy wrote, according to New York Magazine.

"When asked who was taking care of the dog, the guard volunteered that he was. Reassured of the dog's well-being, I returned to my car," Hardy added.

It was shortly after this conversation that the journalist took a picture of the dog and tweeted it out to his followers, writing: "Also, Ted appears to have left behind the family poodle."

Hardy later added: "Just to clarify, this was taken around 1 pm central on Thursday. It's possible Ted brought the poodle back from Cancun with him, or that a family member was staying behind to take care of the dog."

Cruz left his home state as millions struggled with extreme winter conditions that resulted in severe food shortages, power loss, and a clean water crisis. At the time of writing, at least 47 people have died due to the freezing conditions, although this number is expected to be much higher, according to the Texas Tribune.

Upon realizing his mistake, the Texas Senator cut his trip short and flew back to Texas almost 24 hours after departing.

In an interview with reporters, he explained that he was only dropping off his daughters on a vacation with their friends because his family had "lost heat and water." He also added that he had planned to return the following day.

"Look, it was obviously a mistake. In hindsight, I wouldn't have done it. I was trying to be a dad," Cruz said.

But several hours later, a text from Heidi Cruz's group chat that was leaked to Insider (and confirmed by the New York Times) revealed that the family had been planning to escape Texas for several days and invited others to go along with them.

"Is everyone warm? That's a must! We could all huddle in one house, [name's] had heat," Heidi wrote. "Anyone can or want to leave for the week? We may go to Cancun, there is a direct flight at 445pm and hotels with capacity. Seriously."

United Airlines confirmed later that Cruz's flight back to Houston was originally scheduled to return on Saturday, according to NBC News.

Cruz is not the first politician to have been embroiled in dog-related drama.

In 2007, Sen. Mit Romeny found himself the subject of negative media attention after it was reported that in 1983, he had traveled 12 hours to Canada with his Irish Setter, Seamus, strapped to the roof of the car in a kennel.

Romney's dog reportedly had diarrhea during the trip, which was only noticed after Romney's son saw brown liquid dripping down the back window. The senator, who was still a businessman at the time, had to hose the dog off and stuffed him back into the crate.

This incident, condemned by PETA, was used to attack Romney in both his 2008 and the 2012 presidential elections.