He’s a ruff rider.
A Chelsea woman has found a clever loophole to bring her huge — and overwhelmingly adorable — dog Lumi on the New York City subway.
Jackie Hornung, 24, carries the 52-pound, 1 ½-year-old Samoyed in a hiking backpack to comply with the MTA’s rule that “no person may bring any animal on or into any conveyance or facility unless enclosed in a container.”
Most people leave their larger dogs at home and tote only tiny Yorkies or teacup poodles, so the sight of Lumi stuns some straphangers.
“There’s definitely a lot of stares, a lot of laughs and lots of pictures,” Hornung, a medical assistant at Weill Cornell, told The Post.
“People are coming up, saying, ‘Oh my God, he’s so fuzzy. Can I pet him?'”
Videos of the duo have gone viral on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, attracting millions of views, and even transit workers can’t help but smile when they see fluffy Lumi — known online as @LittleBearLumi — enter the station.
“There have been conductors on the subway who have pointed at him like, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing,'” she said. “They just think it’s a riot.”
Lumi is enjoying the ride — and his 15 minutes.
“He is at eye level for people to look at him and pet him and he loves attention,” said Hornung. “He just thrives in [the backpack]. He loves when people pet him.”
Hornung has been packing the pup in the bag — which has holes for his legs and was ordered online for $180 — for about three weeks.
She brings Lumi on the train nearly every other day, taking him to the park, the groomer, training classes and for dog-friendly meals.
Toting around the dog, who weighed a mere 8 pounds when Hornung for got him in August 2021, is a workout.
“He’s pretty heavy … It’s almost like there’s a giant baby on my back,” she said. “I mean, I’m like 5-foot-1. He’s, like, a little less than half my weight.”
But even if Lumi were allowed to walk on the subway, he probably wouldn’t want to.
“He doesn’t like escalators, so we would have to pick him up and carry him,” said Hornung.
Still, as the adorable Lumi continues to grow — male Samoyeds can get up to 66 pounds — getting him in the backpack has become more challenging. The process takes roughly five minutes and ideally two people.
But it’s worth it.
“We’re just trying to spread Lumi’s social media presence, mainly because we love making people smile,” she said. “And what’s better than a giant bear or cloud thing in a backpack?”
