I heard this story from an acquaintance here in New York last October. A friend of hers in the city had a Great Dane as a pet, and when it died, she didn't know how to get rid of the body.

She called the ASPCA, and they suggested that she bring it to their office near the East River in midtown Manhattan.She managed to fit the corpse into a suitcase, and boarded a bus for the ride uptown. As she was walking up the stairs to the ASPCA office, a man offered to carry her suitcase for her.

No, thanks,' she said. But the man grabbed the suitcase anyway and ran downstairs with it, never to be seen again. - Fred Nadis, New York City

DEAR FRED - I'm surprised that this pet owner made it all the way to the ASPCA. Usually in this common New York City story, the thief grabs the suitcase containing the dead dog while the owner is still on the bus.

I received two versions of this story in 1986. Both described the pet as a German shepherd which died while the owners were away; a friend was caring for the dog.

In one version the friend was taking the dog's body to be cremated. In the other, a veterinarian offered to dispose of the body if the person would bring it to the office. A passenger on the subway offered to help the friend move the large suitcase aboard, then dragged it back onto the platform just as the train pulled out of the station.

New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams published the story on Jan. 27, 1987. Her protagonist was an elderly lady who told the sad story of her "cherished Great Dane" to State Sen. Roy Goodman.

Goodman, presumably, told Adams the story.

The lady is dragging a heavy suitcase containing the dog's body down a city street when a helpful stranger lends assistance, but he nabs the bag.

"Only in New York, kids, only in New York," Adams commented. So far my files contain mostly New York City versions of this story, although the plot is derived from the older widespread urban legend "The Dead Cat in the Package." In that one, a family packs their dead cat in a cardboard box and are taking it to be buried when an old lady steals the box. Upon opening the package she faints.

Not to be outdone in dog-nabbing news, the New York Daily News Magazine's "Only in New York" page edited by John Sullivan quoted a version credited to Janet M. Nordon. This time a steamer trunk containing the dog corpse is stolen on the subway by a young man.

This version concludes, "I would have given anything to see the expression on his face when he opened the trunk to admire his loot."

Legend fans will recognize this punchline from the legend called "The Runaway Grandmother." In that one, a family strap grandma's dead body on the roof of their car, only to have it stolen when they leave the car unguarded.

A reader from Wisconsin sent me a version about some women on a shopping trip who stop to aid what looks like an injured dog lying by the roadside.

The animal turns out to be a dead muskrat, which - inexplicably - they pick up and put in an old shopping bag they have in their car. Of course, the bag containing the dead muskrat is stolen while they are shopping.

My most exotic version of the story was sent by a former Peace Corps volunteer to Kenya. Supposedly a volunteer in India's Punjab region was bitten by a village dog and was afraid of catching rabies.

Following instructions in the Peace Corps Guide, he caught the dog, killed it and removed its head for examination at a lab equipped for rabies testing.

He packed the dog's head in ice, using the carton from his Japanese transistor radio, and boarded a train for the lab.

But he fell asleep en route and the package was stolen.

Consequently the volunteer had to undergo the painful series of rabies shots given in the stomach, since there was no longer any way to know whether the dog had been infected with rabies.