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National Weather Service issues 'small dog warning' due to 50-mph winds

Cleveland's National Weather Service urged pet owners in Ohio and Pennsylvania to "hold on to your pooch!"
/ Source: TODAY

Gusting winds in northern Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania reached the level of "hold on tight to your small dog so it doesn't fly away" this week.

The Cleveland branch of the National Weather Service issued an unofficial "small dog warning" for pet owners on Tuesday so that owners of tiny dogs didn't have their little Toto end up in Oz thanks to gusts of up to 50 miles per hour.

Small dog enjoys the sun and wind
Fifty-mile-an-hour winds + small dogs = potential disaster. Shutterstock

The NWS warned people about the winds causing scattered power outages, trees coming down and flying trash can lids while also urging pet owners to "hold on to your pooch!"

Just to drive the point home, the NWS added a graphic of a flying dog as part of its "small dog warning."

Tiny dogs have been known to end up gone with the wind, including a 6-pound Chihuahua that got swept up in a 70-mph gust in Michigan in 2009 and ended up nearly a mile away.

The owners of Tinker Bell needed a "pet psychic" to guide them to woods near where the dog disappeared in order to track her down, according to The Associated Press.

Last month, a Chihuahua puppy in Scotland died after it was swept out to sea by 30-mile-per-hour winds.

Thankfully there were no flying dogs reported in Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday.