A couple of weeks ago, I heard that DOGE had cut funding to my favorite federal employees — the dogs.

The truth is a little more nuanced than that. According to Snopes, what happened was a 30-day freeze on credit-card purchases as well as a freeze on requests related to care of TSA’s bomb-sniffing the dogs.

As Orly commented, that’s semantics. No Money = No Food. No food? No work.

Orly’s not wrong, but I doubt it will come to that. I am sure that the dogs’ handlers will continue to feed them… but it did get me thinking. As I returned from a recent trip abroad, I did not see a single TSA dog.

I did see a tiny beagle, proudly wearing her green USDA jacket, hard at work “Protecting American Agriculture.” She looked well fed.

She took her job very seriously, standing on her tiptoes to sniff at the backpack I was wearing. Detecting no contraband she walked on, sniffing at suitcases, carry-ons, and people’s purses …

When she reached an elderly woman with an enormous pink purse, the beagle paused. She sniffed. The purse was resting on the floor, and this dedicated federal worker took another careful sniff. Then slowly turned to face her handler and sat, making steady eye contact with her human.

Busted!

My suitcase arrived so I did not see whether the owner of the pink purse was hustled off in handcuffs.

In all seriousness, the dogs, whether at TSA, USDA, or another federal agency, do important work. And I admire all working dogs, regardless of their career choice.