Gabriel Bogner left passengers shocked after he boarded a cross-country flight with his huge support dog.
In order to fit Darwin the Great Dane on the plane, Bogner had to buy three seats, one for him and two for his massively cute pooch.
"People were absolutely gobsmacked and shocked but everyone was so excited to see her,” said Bogner.
"I’ve never seen so many smiling at an airport.”
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This was Darwin's first trip in a plane, which Bogner says was an easy ride because of all the assistance from the crew.
"They did joke that she got an upgrade and I didn’t but it was a very smooth trip," he said.
The five-year-old Great Dane is a support dog for Bogner, who has Crohn’s disease, which is a type of inflammatory bowel disease.
“Crohn’s disease involves a lot of time and a lot of pain and a lot of time in the bathroom,” Bogner explained on TikTok.
“I took it upon myself to train her in some of these tasks like accompanying me to the bathroom, of which at one point in my life I was going 40 times a day.”
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A TikTok of Darwin’s adventures on the plane has gone viral, with more than 17.9 million views and 2.9 million likes.
“As a flight attendant, I would do anything for that dog,” wrote one commenter.
Another added: “My entire flight would be about me petting the dog or watching the dog or going to the bathroom just to walk past the dog."
A third commented, saying: “I would 1000% gladly sit next to your buddy than some of these humans who remove their damn shoes!”
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The pair was heading to New York from Los Angeles, although Bogner had attempted to find other modes of transport.
“I looked at a lot of options to figure out how I could possibly get her here,” said Bogner in a follow-up TikTok.
“I looked into driving her myself, I looked into chartering a plane. But just none of those options seemed really viable.”
When Bogner inquired about transporting his precious Darwin in a crate under the plane, he was surprised to learn that she was too big for even the largest crate.
“It was definitely a shocker for people walking through the airport to see a literal horse coming towards them," he said.
Velentina Boulter