How Urbane: Dog Rides Seattle Bus To Get To The Park

"Did that just happen?"

That's the reaction one bus rider had in Seattle, after realizing a dog had just joined him for a ride through the city, traveling several stops to her destination: a dog park.

The story comes to us from Seattle's KOMO 4 TV, which reports that Eclipse, the black Labrador who is winning fans for riding a city bus by herself, lives very close to a bus stop.

Eclipse is owned by Jeff Young, who does not seem to be a control freak.

"It's not hard to get on" the bus, he tells KOMO. "She gets on in front of her house and she gets off at the dog park, three or four stops later."

It all started when Eclipse refused to wait for Young to finish a cigarette before getting on the bus that takes them to a dog park they regularly visit. Then she took the bus by herself again. In the past few weeks, the two-year-old dog has been noticed by many commuters, such as radio host Miles Montgomery of station KISW.

"She was most concerned about seeing out the window, and I couldn't figure out what that was," Montgomery tells KOMO. "It was really just about seeing where her stop was."

This week, the story of the well-mannered dog and her beguiled fellow bus riders is being embraced by Web readers hungry for a bit of uplifting and interesting news (we confess: we're in that group, too).

"All the bus drivers know her. She sits here just like a person does," commuter Tiona Rainwater tells KOMO. "She makes everybody happy. How could you not love this thing?"