ARGENTINE President Cristina Fernandez chose an unexpected theme for her year-end message to the country: a change in policy at the state-run airline to allow passengers to carry their already notoriously pampered lapdogs with them on flights.

    Punctuated by photographs on her Facebook page of the two-term leader sitting on presidential plane Tango 01 with her Toy Poodle Lolita, Fernandez said the perk will be shared by travelers on Aerolineas Argentinas, the country’s main carrier, starting in mid-January.

    “Careful! I said only small pets,” the post says. “Don’t try to board with a 50-kilo mastiff. Lolita only weighs 2 kilos.”

    Hand-held pooches ranging from Shih Tzu’s to Pugs are a common sight at outdoor cafes and on the wide avenues of Buenos Aires, which is known as the Paris of South America for its European layout and architecture.

    Lapdogs are a status symbol in Argentina, dressed sometimes in fitted sweaters emblazoned with colors of their owners’ favorite soccer club. Fernandez’s dog post got more than 36,000 “likes.”

    What Argentines are less keen on, and what got no mention in Fernandez’s message, was the country’s double-digit inflation and contracting gross domestic product.

    As an afterthought, Fernandez said central bank cash reserves rose 2.7 percent in 2014, which could keep her from being forced into an unpalatable deal with hedge funds suing over defaulted bonds.

    “Oh yes, I almost forgot, we’ve come to US$31.4 billion in central bank reserves,” the post says. (SD-Agencies)