Passengers See Dog Riding Bus Alone — Then Discover The Sweet Reason Why

Last week, Tet Tapuyao and her friend were on a jeepney bus heading home from work in the Philippines when, much to their surprise, an unlikely passenger hopped aboard at one of the stops — a big black dog.

"I asked a recent passenger if he was the owner," Tapuyao told The Dodo. "To my amazement, he said no, he wasn't."

What the solo-riding pup was up to, however, soon became crystal clear.

Neither Tapuyao nor her friend had ever seen a dog traveling by bus alone before. They were smitten by his initiative, and speculated about where the pup might be headed. "We kept laughing," Tapuyao said, "amazed and charmed by the dog and by the situation's peculiarity. We were really fascinated at the sight."

Tapuyao decided to take out her phone and record a video, hoping to see how the whole thing resolved. Not long after, the bus pulled up to a stoplight next to another public transport vehicle, called a multicab, filled with people. And that's where things got really interesting.

"One of the kids in the multicab shouted, 'Oh my! It's Vince!'" Tapuyao said. "Then another, 'Mom! It's Vince,' pointing at the dog."

Sure enough, the dog had found his family. Here's footage of that big surprise:

Turns out, Vince the dog's family had left him at home while they headed on an outing that day. But, evidently not thrilled at the thought of being left out, Vince decided to trail them on their journey — and by bus must have seemed a good way to do it.

In the end, he got to join them after all.

"They didn't have any choice but to bring Vince together with them," Clarissa Carillo, a niece of the dog's owner, told The Dodo.

Vince's plan had worked.

The dog's family does sometimes take him on errands with them by bus, so he already had a basic understanding of how the system works. But never in a million years did they think Vince was capable of using that knowledge to surprise them away from home.

"Vince did not undergo dog trainings," Carillo said. "He's just a normal dog."

It just goes to show, even a "normal" dog's love makes them capable of some pretty incredible things.