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A black Labrador named Eclipse has been riding city buses
without her owner to a local dog park, local transportation
officials said on Tuesday.
Seattle is a pet-friendly city, and dogs are allowed on public
transportation, with few restrictions, though normally they are
accompanied by a human, a spokesman with King County Metro
Transit said.
The transit agency confirmed the unusual tale, saying Eclipse's
journeys have been documented by both customers and drivers.
"There's no reason to doubt the veracity of it," spokesman Jeff
Switzer said.
Over the past few weeks, Eclipse has boarded a bus alone near
her home in the Seattle neighborhood of Belltown, riding about
four stops to a nearby dog park, both commuters and transit
employees said.
Miles Montgomery, a radio show host on Seattle station KISW, was
riding the bus last week when he noticed a black Lab in the
aisle, eyeing the empty seat next to him.
"She jumps up and sits down, and I start petting her and the guy
beside me says 'oh yeah, that's that dog that rides the bus to
the dog park every day, by herself,'" Montgomery said.
As the bus rolled on, Montgomery realized Eclipse was indeed
alone and staring intently out the window.
"She started to wag her tail when she saw her stop. Then she
jumped down from the seat and she just ran off the bus, and she
ran to the dog park," he said.
Montgomery was the first to report seeing the solo-riding pup on
his radio show, and the story garnered a lot of attention - and
disbelief, he said.
"It was really difficult to convince people that I actually just
saw this happen," he said.
Eclipse's owner told local broadcaster KOMO he is OK with her
independent activities.
"We get separated. She gets on the bus without me, and I catch
up with her at the dog park," owner Jeff Young told KOMO.
"Probably once a week I get a phone call. 'Hi, I have your dog
Eclipse here ...' I have to tell them, 'No, she's fine.'"
Transportation officials said the story was odd but not a huge
cause for concern.
"She'd be safer if she could keep her owner on a leash," Switzer
said.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Eric Beech)
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