“You don’t expect to see a person in the road. Let alone a person with a dog.”

But, that was precisely what TriMet bus driver Mike Thomas saw one night when he was driving his routine Line 54 route to the Portland City Center in Oregon.

Bus driver Mike Thomas watched as the car in front of the bus swerved around to avoid hitting a man that was standing in the middle of the road.

The guy was acting so strangely as if walking toward oncoming traffic was a totally normal thing to do…

Mike slowed down the bus and that’s when he noticed there was a cute pup by the man’s side. But, the dog didn’t seem to be too keen about his owner and pulled away when the man grabbed his collar.

The stranger approached and asked to be let on board, and Mike agreed out of concern for their safety. But, for some reason, the man let go of the yellow lab’s collar as if he was planning to leave the poor little guy behind!

When the driver asked if the yellow lab was his, the supposed dog owner said: “Yes, but he’s OK.” Of course, Mike didn’t believe him and insisted that he bring the pup with him.

“I said, ‘No you need to get your dog, he’s in the road.’ So he called. He said ‘come here,’ but he didn’t say the dog’s name. The dog came back and he pulled the dog on by the collar.”

Mike knew in his gut that something wasn’t right, especially since the guy didn’t call the dog by his name, which happened to be Cooper.

He continued to let the strange situation play out while he tried to figure out what to do. Mike was paying close attention, so when the man started talking to the pretty young woman who sat next to him, Mike eavesdropped on their conversation.

The bus driver was stunned at what he heard next; the man asked the woman if she wanted to take Cooper the dog home with her!

That’s when Mike became certain that the man with Cooper was not, in fact, his owner. This dog was actually a lost dog who had been found by the wrong person.

“Things didn’t fit together so I let him know that I just wasn’t buying it.”

It would be quite a while before the bus arrived at its final destination in downtown Portland.

So, in the meantime, Mike did his best to keep an eye on Cooper, who was happy to just lay around and chase his tennis ball around the bus.

After about an hour, they finally arrived at the end of the bus route, and the stranger began to make his way off of the bus with Cooper. Luckily, Mike quickly stopped him and saved the dog from his unknown fate.

“I grabbed Cooper’s collar and said the dog’s gonna stay with me. I would be getting him back to his family.”

It turns out that Cooper’s real mama is Jane Murphy, and at the time she was away vacationing in Hawaii. The dog was being watched by her son, but he either escaped or was stolen while he was away at work that night.

Jane panicked when she heard her pup was missing! But luckily it wasn’t long before she received a message on her phone that put her at ease.

“Your dog has been found. He’s on a TriMet bus. He was brought back home a little after midnight by the transit police.”

To thank Mike, Jane sent him a picture of Cooper that said: “Thank you for bringing me back home to my family.”

She went on to say:

“It brings great pride that there are some really good people in this world. Who are willing to go out that extra mile for our four-legged animals.”

In a news release, TriMet said that their bus drivers can do it all.

“They get thousands of people safely where they need to go every day. They provide customer service, give direction and offer assistance. And in the case of operator Mickeal “Mike” Thomas, they even rescue dogs.”

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Source: Animal Channel