Puppy Still Missing After Escaping Harness & Running Onto Subway Tracks

Marley Monroe

An innocent puppy who did absolutely nothing wrong slipped out of her harness and ran onto the subway tracks at a Manhattan station on Thursday evening, causing subway delays during rush hour as workers tried to find her. And the eight-month-old cocker spaniel puppy, named Marley Monroe, is still missing as of Friday morning.

Marley’s owner, Paula Boodoo­singh, told reporters that Marley slipped out of her harness around 5:40 p.m. while she was waiting for her daughter at the Herald Square station. The dog then ran into the tunnel between Herald Square and the 42nd Street station. “It’s still closed," Boodoo­singh said of the harness. "I tried to grab her leg, a paw, something."

Boodoosingh and her daughter, Bianca Ottley, were planning to interview a doggy babysitter with Marley before they headed out of town for a wedding this weekend. Northbound N and Q trains were initially held at the station as workers looked in the tunnels; they even let Boodoosingh and Ottley ride the operator’s cab in separate, slow-moving trains to search as well. By 6:30 p.m., the trains started running again. The mother and daughter didn't exit the tunnels until around 8:30 p.m.

"She was nervous I think from the trains and stuff,' Ottley told CBS. "She just jumped off the platform and ran uptown on the tracks."

"At least they didn’t find anything else, but it’s still not comforting to know that she’s still out there,” Ottley also said. "I’m just worried, I’m just praying, I’m just praying to find her safe," Boodoosingh added.

While I'm sure many commuters were upset about the delays, most of the people responding to the MTA's tweet about the dog were more upset about the pupper's safety:

As you may already know, according to the MTA's rules of conduct, "no person may bring any animal on or into any conveyance or facility unless enclosed in a container and carried in a manner which would not annoy other passengers" (with the exception of service animals). We've written extensively about the bag dog debate—I am very on the record as an advocate for letting well-trained dogs share space with humans on our dysfunctional mass transit apparatus, so long as their humans are responsible enough to know whether their dog can handle it.

But obviously some owners, even with the best intentions, can have a hard time keeping their slippery puppers in their harnesses. Maybe we really should have taken Andy Byford's suggestion that dogs should be "carried in a small basket" more seriously. I'm telling ya, the MTA should immediately start distributing "Byford Baskets" to commuters as a good will gesture!

We'll update as soon as there is any news about Marley.