Thomas McCormack of Scotland was surprised, to say the least, one morning when his dog, Paddy, showed up on the train McCormack takes to work.
“The next thing I know Paddy comes in and sits on the seat next to me,” McCormack said, according to the Telegraph. “I was shocked. He just looked at me as if he was saying, ‘Where are you going?'”
Paddy, a 4-year-old Collie/Lab mix, had been left in McCormack’s backyard, which is surrounded by a 6-foot-high fence. So how did he manage to escape?
McCormack’s neighbors solved the mystery. They told him they had seen Paddy bouncing on a trampoline and leaping over the fence. That also explained why Paddy sometimes greeted his dog dad on the front porch, McCormack said.
“He’s bouncing on the trampoline with the kids all the time — that’s where he must have learned it,” he said. “He’s a clever dog.”
McCormack said Paddy had probably previously tried unsuccessfully to follow his dog dad’s scent in the morning.
“That morning he obviously caught me,” he said. “I had to take him to work. Obviously he’s a new start.”
As for the trampoline, it’s been moved away from the fence.