Dog takes 20-mile bus ride without owner

HOUSTON -- A dog has gone viral after he took a 20-mile ride on a Houston city bus.

Now, those taking care of him are hoping to reunite him with loved ones.

"Oh he's cute. He is precious," said Officer Ida Schoener.

Just before 8 a.m. Monday, police Schoener says a man came to her office with a dog he said wasn't his, KPRC-TV reports.

"He said he had boarded the 44, just like any other patron," Schoener said.

The pup made a 20-mile journey, taking bus number 44 from a stop at Highway 249 and Hollister in North Houston and getting off at the downtown transit center.

"He couldn't turn him loose, but the guy had to go to work and he didn't know what to do with him. I knew he belonged to somebody. He was a friendly little guy," Schoener said.

Officer Schoener took the pup to Bayou City Veterinary Hospital to get checked out.

"When I put him in the car, he just laid down in the passenger seat and looked at me like I was his chauffeur," she said.

The vet says he's a little thin, a lot dirty and nursing a sore ear, but otherwise doing fine. And they're now working to get him home.

"So we've put him on Facebook, we've put him on a lot of different social networking sites. We hope we find his parents; we know he's probably loved and missed right now," said Susan Baker, Bayou City Veterinary Hospital.

"Because he's somebody's little friend we just wanna make sure he gets back where he belongs," Schoener said.