TED Cruz is under fire for reportedly leaving his dog, Snowflake, at home during a deadly winter storm – as he and the rest of the family jetted off to Cancun.

The Texas senator has faced intense backlash for taking the trip but claimed that he was merely acting as an escort for his pre-teen daughters and friends – noting that, like millions of his fellow Texans, his family had lost heat and water.

Michael Hardy, a reporter for New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, said he decided to pay a visit to Cruz’s Houston home in the exclusive River Oaks neighborhood, where he spotted a white dog peering out a pane of glass in the front door.

“Is this Senator Cruz’s house?” the reporter asked a man who stepped out of a vehicle parked in the driveway.

The man, who identified himself as a security guard, said it was and that the Republican lawmaker wasn’t home, the NY Post reports.

When asked who was taking care of the animal, the guard said he was.

“Just drove by Ted Cruz’s house in Houston. His lights are off but a neighbor told me the block got its power back last night. Also, Ted appears to have left behind the family poodle,” he wrote.

Twitter users hit out at the embattled senator over his apparent decision to leave his dog at home.

“Tell me they really didn’t leave that dog home alone,” one person wrote.

Another said: “That pooch deserves better,” another snarled.

“Snowflake has now joined the 99.9 percent of Americans who reportedly can’t stand @tedcruz,” a third person wrote.

Some users tagged the ASPCA and PETA, while others expressed some skepticism about the image.

“Where’s the snow and ice?” one said.

“I don’t think this is really @tedcruz house, where’s the snow?” added another.

“I tried to explain that after two sunny, 40-degree days, the snow and ice had melted, but some continued to insist the photo was fake,” Hardy wrote.

After dashing to a luxury resort in Mexico, Cruz landed back in Texas yesterday and had a police escort at the airport, where protesters held signs stating "24 dead" from the winter storm.

Speaking to reporters outside his house, Cruz admitted he made a mistake and insisted he was "just trying to be a dad."

"It was obviously a mistake and in hindsight I wouldn't have done it," Cruz said.

"I was trying to be a dad and all of us have made decisions – when you've got two girls who have been cold for two days, and haven't had heat or power, and they are saying: 'Look, we don't have school, why don't we go, let's get out of here.''

Asked directly what he was thinking, Cruz replied: "You question what I was thinking, and… I was trying to take care of my family. 

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"I was trying to take care of my kids. It's unfortunate, the fire storm that came from it.

"It was not my intention – in saying 'yes' to my daughters to somehow diminish all the Texans that were going through real hardship."

The senator later expressed his regret as text messages obtained by The Sun emerged showing his wife Heidi planning the Cancun trip to escape the bitterly cold weather in Texas. 

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