Pet Hospital Escapee Bristol Captured on Interstate 205 and Returned

"Bristol" had been dropped off that morning by his owner at the Banfield Pet Hospital inside Petsmart.

Photos: Oregon State Police

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - "Bristol", a 3-year old Pug, was safely retrieved Thursday morning by an Oregon State Police trooper during heavy traffic on Interstate 205 after his "unauthorized departure" from a local pet hospital.

The dog had been the subject of several citizen reports and a search by pet hospital employees before he was found and returned.

Wednesday at approximately 8:30 AM, three citizen reports were phoned into Oregon State Police dispatch reporting a dog that was running in and out of traffic lanes and along Interstate 205 in the area of Sunnyside Road and Johnson Creek Boulevard.

OSP Senior Trooper Duane Larson responded to the area and was northbound near Johnson Creek Boulevard interchange when he spotted the dog about 9:00 AM in the center median. Senior Trooper Larson had to go to Foster Road to turn around and return to the area.

Upon doing so he said he first spotted what looked like two woman dressed as nurses walking on the right southbound shoulder looking for something. A short distance later, he saw the dog heading southbound on the inside left southbound shoulder of the center median.

Larson stopped on the inside shoulder, got out of his patrol car and ordered "Bristol" to stop. "Bristol stopped, turned around and walked back to me. I picked him up like a football and put him in back of my patrol car so he could be returned to where he came from," Larson said.

A woman driving in the area reportedly stopped and told Senior Trooper Larson that the dog was possibly missing from a Petsmart store on SE 82nd Avenue near Johnson Creek Boulevard.

She believed this because she knew the two women that were walking along the right southbound shoulder apparently looking for the dog.

Senior Trooper Larson drove "Bristol" to the Petsmart store about a third of a mile from the freeway where he was found.

Upon contacting employees, he learned "Bristol" had been dropped off that morning by his owner at the Banfield Pet Hospital inside Petsmart.

"Bristol" slipped out of his collar and ran away from employees, getting out of the store by activating the automatic sliding door at Petsmart's entrance/exit.

After fleeing, "Bristol" crossed the southbound lanes of Interstate 205 and may have been trying to get to his home on the east side of the freeway. Store employees were trying to find "Bristol" until he was found and returned to their store.