Ted Cruz abandoned his poodle 'Snowflake' in a 'freezing' house for Cancun vacation: report

The political optics of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) fleeing Texas for a Cancun vacation while millions in Texas were without electricity and/or water continues to get worse.

Michael Hardy, a reporter for New York Magazine, investigated the claims that the Cruz house did not have power. In text messages reviewed by The New York Times, the senator's wife Heidi said the house was "freezing."

"Supplied with Cruz's address by a knowledgeable friend, I drove the fifteen minutes from my Houston apartment to the uber-rich River Oaks neighborhood where Cruz lives," Hardy explained. "From the street, Cruz's white, Colonial Revival-style mansion looked dark and uninhabited. A neighbor informed me that the block had indeed lost power before finally getting it back late Wednesday night. A glance at the lighted lanterns flanking the doorways of other homes on the block confirmed this. The senator's story appeared to check out. But then I heard barking and noticed a small, white dog looking out the bottom right pane of glass in the senator's front door. Had Cruz left his dog behind?"

"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. 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," he explained.

In 2014, Cruz posted a photo of Snowflake to Twitter.