Eclipse the dog, who was famous for taking the bus to the dog park alone, has passed away

Eclipse the dog, who was famous for taking the bus to the dog park alone, has passed away

Eclipse, the Seattle dog famous for riding the city bus, died on Friday. The announcement was made on her personal Facebook page.

According to the account, she was ten years old when she died in her sleep. Her previous posts revealed that she had cancerous tumors.

Eclipse gained attention in 2015 when she began taking the bus by herself. Her owner, Jeff Young, says the two of them would frequently take the bus to their neighborhood dog park, Belltown Dog Park. When the bus arrived one day, he was still smoking a cigarette, so she boarded without him.

Within a few weeks, the black lab-bullmastiff mix was a regular commuting companion in her signature red harness. She was known by bus drivers, according to other passengers who spoke to Seattle’s KOMO News in 2015, and she knew her stop by looking out the window.

While fans marveled at Eclipse’s ability, Young spoke about her habit with what could be taken as nonchalance, or perhaps confidence in his dog.

“We get separated. She gets on the bus without me, and I catch up with her at the dog park,” he told KOMO News. “It’s not hard to get on. She gets on in front of her house and she gets off at the dog park, three or four stops later.”

King County Metro, the area transit service, embraced its iconic passenger, even making a music video in 2015:

King County Metro paid tribute to the dog on its Twitter page, posting an image of her and the note, “Eclipse was a super sweet, world-famous, bus-taken dog and true Seattle icon. You brought joy and happiness to everyone and showed us all that good dogs belong on the bus.”