Everyone has that friend who claims that the bus system is too complicated to bother with, and, if it’s no trouble, do you think you could just swing by and pick her up? (Sorry, Lily!) But now you have one more way to ridicule this person: In Seattle, land of an admittedly byzantine metro bus system, even the dogs can handle public transit.

Meet Eclipse, a two-year-old black lab-mastiff mix who knows how to take the bus three stops to a downtown dog park … by herself.

[protected-iframe id=”6656419e1063d0de3014b6c902eabe18-5104299-57007830″ info=”http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Seattle-dogs-rush-hour-ride-on-the-bus-by-herself-weekly-288345081.html?embed” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=””]

Reader support helps sustain our work. Donate today to keep our climate news free. All donations DOUBLED!

Eclipse joins the ranks of pro-bus-riding dogs and cats before her, not to mention sleepy foxes.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

In my family, we still talk about Rex, my grandparents’ genius German shepherd who could walk himself to the corner store with money and a grocery list and return with correct change — but I’ll admit that the real feat there was probably training the grocer to give cigarettes to a dog. Eclipse takes it up a notch by mastering the art of sitting next to strangers on the bus. Next steps on the path to public transit expertise: “bus hygiene” (optional) and “actually paying your fare” (non-negotiable, sadly).

Eclipse’s owner says: “She’s been urbanized, totally. She’s a bus-riding, sidewalk-walking dog.”

Now if only I could say the same of all my city-dwelling friends …

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.